


Infected

by paperttown



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 5SOS - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Kinda, M/M, Other, a lil death here and there, based in america sorry, but not mentioned, just ashton and luke, kinda loosely based on The Walking Dead, lot's of larry and ziall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-04-29
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:39:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1335760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperttown/pseuds/paperttown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"7 October,</p>
<p>It’s been 3 months since the world ended" </p>
<p>Niall and Harry are trying desperately to survive in the post-apocalyptic world they now know. Escaping death at every corner, they try to get back to their loved ones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> has this been done before? i hope not. 
> 
> i don't own anything besides characters that i make up and that's it :D

_7 October,_

_It’s been 3 months since the world ended. This notebook I’ve been writing in has reached its last page and im currently writing it! Can you believe it? I can’t. What will I do now? I’ll just have to find a new notebook in the next town we come across. Or house. I’m not being picky; I just need something to keep my thoughts in. I miss mum a lot, now more than ever. And dad. And Gemma. And Louis. I miss him more than anything. I miss his face, his smile, the way his body felt wrapped around me. I miss Liam and Zayn too. I really, really hope they’re okay. I’m so sad about it but I can’t let Niall see me like this. I think he’s had enough of me, to be quite honest. How long till . . . Shit I’ve reached the bottom of the page._

Harry closed the small, beaten notebook and placed it carefully in his rucksack. The binding was coming apart and some of the pages had fallen out and he couldn’t risk any more damage. What if whatever the hell was happening finally cleared up and his entries were read by people? They could call it _A Harry Styles Tell All_ or something. He looked up as the sun began to rise, peeking over the treetops. They’d been in this area of the forest for two weeks now and he’d been hoping that they’d be able to keep going to wherever they were going. Niall had been dry and keen to snap at anything these days, but he guessed that that’s what two weeks of near starvation does to you. In any case, Harry made sure to stay well out of Niall’s way.

He got up and stretched his long limbs, walking over to the small creek they had discovered the day before. That was the first time since this thing had started that Niall had cracked a smile and seemed to return to his normal self, but it was gone in a fraction of a second, replaced by the moody unreasonable boy he was now intimidated of. Harry’s favorite part about this all was the fact that the birds still chirped melodies in the morning. The world had turned into a cruel, horrible place overrun with the undead, but birds still found reason to sing. He cupped his hands in the cool water and drank and splashed his face. They wondered about how safe it was to drink, but neither of them had collapsed or died or gone blind yet, so it must be pretty decent water. “ _They key is to not get bitten by these things, Harry. You’ll be fine if you don’t get bitten,”_ His father had told him. 

Today’s sunrise was gray, dull, and cold. One of his favorite things was watching the sun rise, which he got to see a lot of. He and Niall had agreed on taking turns staying awake during the night, just in case one of those things came at them from the woods. Niall would take watch from sundown to what they assumed was midnight, and then Harry would take over from midnight until he got sleepy. Niall would wake up from his sleep (which was when Harry liked him the best, since he looked like his old self while asleep) and simply tap Harry’s shoulder and that would be it. Harry’s internal clock, however, had other plans:  always waking up him up a few minutes before the sunrise.

He looked around. Niall was still sleeping, which was shocking since he usually woke up a few seconds after Harry. Well, if he wanted them to get a move on today, he might as well surprise his once best-friend with a little persuasion. He mentally picked a song to match the dull sunrise and walked over to the berry bush he found behind a tall tree. He was certain that they were blueberries, but when he had asked Niall, Niall grunted and returned to examining the creek.

“ _Come on skinny love just last the year,  
Pour a little salt we were never here . . . “_

Harry sniggered, imaging what Louis would say if he were there. “ _Really? Bon Iver? Bon. Iver. How melodramatic can you be?”_ but he’d probably join in and sing with him. Harry willed himself not to tear up as he plucked some fresh blueberries. He usually reserved these breakdowns for his nighttime watches, when Niall couldn’t hear or see it.

“ _And I told you to be balanced,  
and I told you to be kind . . .” _

Maybe he’d make some kind of jelly? Place it between the bread they had saved from their recent break in to an abandoned house a couple of days ago. Hah, that’d be a 5-star breakfast compared to the crackers they’d been eating. They refrained on eating the bread, silently agreeing that it was for emergencies. Well, this classified as an emergency.

“ _Who will love you?_  
 _Who will fight?_  
 _And who will fall far behind?”_

The twenty something blueberries he had picked deemed good enough, and he returned back to their little campsite. He paused halfway when he remembered that he didn’t know how to make jelly. _Shit._ He had planned to just crush the berries until something came out and then what? Spread the berry juice on the bread? His idea of a good semi-good breakfast was fading away faster than the time Niall had decided on getting a tattoo and backed out at the very last millisecond. He grabbed a rock, deciding to improvise, sat down, and began to mush the blueberries, when he heard movement coming from behind the tree that Niall was sleeping under. His heart hammered in his chest and he felt his breathing intensify. If this was one of them . . . he’d only seen them from a  distance. Not including the moment after the crash.  

He got into a crouching position and raised the rock. There was rustling coming from behind the tree trunk and he saw Niall begin to stir. _Fucking shit Niall, now is when you decide to wake up?!_ He thought, his eyes wide.  Niall raised himself and squinted at him and Harry put a finger to his mouth. The rustling continued and Niall slowly moved his head toward the source of the noise . . . and a bird flew out from behind the tree. Harry let out a breath of relief. The bird perched on top of a low branch and whistled as Niall got up. Harry glanced at his poorly mashed berries and picked them up. He held them out and said “berry?” with a smile.

Niall made something between a smile and a grimace and a frown at the same time and went to was his face. Harry sighed and ate a berry, pleasantly surprised when it tasted pretty good. He went to his rucksack to get his notebook to write down that berries were still edible, when he remembered that he could no longer use it. He sighed again and turned to look at Niall, who was drinking water. It was turning out to be another day of silence and sitting around, and he was beginning to prepare himself for it when Niall abruptly turned, walked over to his rucksack, hoisted it over his shoulder, and began walking up the creek.

_“Well, this is it. He’s had enough,”_ Harry thought.  Niall had picked a hell of a moment to leave him out here stranded. He stared at the retreating back of his blonde friend that was getting further and further away. Life without a grumpy Niall looked dull and boring; he hated the idea of being alone. He’d been with him for so long that he’d gotten used to the uncomfortable silences. Niall stopped and looked back at Harry.

“Coming?” he asked. Harry blinked and Niall made an impatient noise. Harry grabbed his rucksack and quickly caught up to him. “Think it’s time to change places. We’ve been here for so long it’s driving me bonkers,” Niall said. Something had clicked into place within Niall’s head while he slept and Harry bit back a smile.

“Yeah, me too,” he said. They were finally leaving and he couldn’t be happier.

\--

They walked the creek for most of the day. Around noon (or so they thought, the sun was in the middle of the sky anyway) they reached a fork. They could either go left and face the unknown or go right and . . . . Face the unknown. They didn’t have much of a choice, though, because if they kept walking a short distance, they’d reach a cliff. The trees in this area were lighter and less thick than the ones at the old spot and there were more berry bushes.

“Robert Frost.” Niall stated.

“Come again?” Harry said.

“That poem by Robert Frost, The Road Less Taken? I feel like we’re in that situation now, Hazza.” Niall rubbed his temples. "We read it Sophomore year," 

_Hazza?_ This was the most they had talked in weeks, and Niall’s calling him by his old nickname? 

“We could keep going? Straight, I mean,” Harry said.

“And fall?” Niall laughed.

 “True, true,” He didn’t know how long nice-Niall would last and was keen to keep him around.

“Right, okay, close your eyes and when I say 3, uh, we’ll say which way we think we should go?” Niall said, looking at Harry with the uttermost concern in his face that it took every muscle in Harry’s body to keep him from laughing.

“Awesome,” Harry said, closing his eyes.

“One. . . Two . . . Three!”

“Left!” they both said in unison. They turned to look at each other, serious at first, and then broke into laughter. Harry walked over to ledge and looked out at the various shades of green. It was an impressive sight for a picnic. He looked over and saw Niall standing by his side, smiling.

“What is that? Over there,” he pointed. Harry followed the direction of his finger.

“What?”

“Over there! Look, it’s a bunch of trees and then – I think that’s a road?” He said. Harry squinted and sure enough, there was a streak of grey barely visible just beyond the green. “I think both of the ways would take us there, what do you think?”

“Yes. It looks like the creek continues down there! We’re still taking the left side of the creek?” Harry asked.

“Yup! But we have to make sure we’re going in that direction.” And they began their way down the left side of the creek. Stopping occasionally to drink water and refill their water bottles, they covered a lot of distance. By dusk, they had a nice view of the cliff they had been on earlier that day and they agreed to keep walking until it was time for the first watch.

“Here?” Niall asked, answering his own question as he dropped his rucksack and sat down to nurse a blister on his foot.  “I’ll take first watch. You look tired, Haz,” he said with a smile. Harry looked at him, setting down his things and lying down against a tree.

“Sometimes I wish we knew how to start a fire. That time we went camping it was Liam who started it, wasn’t it?  Fucking Boy Scout, I tell ya,” Harry said. “Or Zayn’s lighter. Where is he when you need him?”

“Out there, hopefully. Somewhere.” Niall replied.

“Yeah . . .” Harry said, and he laid his head against the earth and forced himself to sleep.

In what felt like no time at all, he felt himself being shaken. He heard someone urgently whispering but didn’t register what was going on, he slapped the hand away and shifted his position but was shoved right back. “Harry, Jesus Christ, wake up, we have to go!” Niall whisper-yelled into his ear. Harry opened his eyes.

“Wha-“ Niall slapped his hand across his mouth, his eyes wide with fear. “Please, one of those things is over there, please we have to go,” Niall removed his hand and swung his rucksack over his shoulder. “Harry, _please!”_ Harry got up and rubbed sleep out of his eyes and picked up his bag.

“Niall, what –“ Niall shushed him, staring at something behind him. Harry turned around, slowly, and saw, that no less than 10 feet away there was a woman standing. In the light of the moon, he saw that the dress she was wearing was tattered and ripped in certain parts. She swayed like a drunk and her arms stuck out at weird angles. Parts of her hair were missing and he saw that her skin was grey, black around the neck, and peeling off. Her mouth was bloody and made biting motions, even though there was nothing to bite, making a sound that sounded along the lines of a snarl and a gargle.

He looked back at Niall, who was rooted to the spot. “ _One of them?”_ he mouthed and Niall nodded. Niall had told him once that he saw on the news that these things traveled in packs. So, if there was one of them over there, the rest couldn’t be far behind. “ _The only way to kill them is to, well, kill them”_ Niall had said. Neither of them (as far as he knew) had ever killed anyone, or even had the knowledge of _how_ , but he looked around for a weapon anyway.

Was Niall planning to stand there until it walked away? What the hell was so urgent that he had to wake Harry up, and not even move? Harry bent over to pick up a stone that was pretty big, in his opinion, when he heard more gurgling snarling noises. He looked up and saw two more zombies join the woman; he felt Niall shift behind him. _Don’t run. Do. Not. Run._ He knew that these things moved based on sound, but he wasn’t sure if they walked or ran after their prey.  He raised three trembling fingers, hoping Niall would get the gist of what he was planning and put one down. Tiptoeing away once he reached three wasn’t the brightest idea, but what else was there to do?

He put another finger down and started moving backward, stepping on a twig. The resulting snap sounded like a canon going off and all three undead heads turned toward the source of the noise. And out of the darkness from the trees next to them came two zombies, one of them grabbing Harry, who fell, stone flying out of his hand. Niall screamed as three more came out of the darkness.

The Zombie was on top of him, mouth snapping with rotting teeth. “NO, FUCK, NO! NIALL!” he was practically wrestling with the thing. One arm on its chest, pushing it back, the other hitting wherever he could reach. The thing snapped, closer to his face than it was before, and out of his peripheral vision he saw the woman and the other two zombies approaching. He heard Niall screaming and then there was another zombie that appeared next to him, he screamed Niall’s name again as the zombie that had dragged him to the ground got closer to his face and he smelled rotten meat that penetrated his nostrils and the other zombie was about to clamp down on his arm when Niall’s black sneaker met up with it halfway and sent its jaw flying through the air.

Niall pushed the zombie on top of Harry off of him and he quickly got up and examined his friend. “Are you alright?!” He asked. Niall nodded. Harry turned and saw that the woman and her zombie friends had joined them.

“Harry! Harry what do we do? I – I – don’t . . .?” Niall panted.

“Rocks! Throw rocks!” Harry yelled and scanned the ground. He picked one up and beamed it at one of the zombies, but all it did was make a pretty nasty indent in its head. The zombie that had tried to bite him was getting up again and his eyes filled with tears. Niall lurched forward and bashed its head with a rock, repeatedly, until a sickening crunch filled the air. He fell backward, covered in blood.

“Niall! Niall!” Harry yelled but Niall was having a full on panic attack. “Come on!” He pulled his friends shirt collar up. The remaining zombie’s were closing in on them and Harry hoisted him up by the armpit.

They ran.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback and a back story! oh man

“The infection has now spread throughout most of the Northern states at an alarmingly fast rate, Capital officials said today,” said the news anchor on the television. Louis pulled Harry closer to him. It was Thursday night and they were all cuddles under Harry’s warm, soft blankets. Despite it being the middle of July in one of the hottest summer’s on record, it was still pretty chilly in Styles’ household. Their legs were tangled and hands were exploring each others’ hair (their fingers were all too familiar with this territory) and paying close attention to the TV.

“Mayor Martinez held a press conference today, in which she addressed the towns’ growing concern with the infection and the infected. We go live to Spencer Neray at City Hall. Spencer?”  The camera quickly changed to a very disheveled sandy haired man standing in front of the steps leading up to city hall. 

“Yes Paula, the Mayor’s press conference definitely addressed some of the concerns that the people have been having. She said she knows of two, yes two, confirmed cases of infections right here in town, but that those two cases have been isolated and taken care of. How? She neglected to say but she did say that a mandatory 6 PM curfew will be instated as of . . . well, as of 6 PM today, actually.” said Spencer. 

“It looks deserted there, Spencer. Can you describe the scene?” Paula asked.

Spencer glanced behind him and turned back to look at the camera. “I can confirm that City Hall and City Square are empty, completely empty, and you know how this place gets! Not even on Thanksgiving have I seen this place so empty. There are a couple of homeless people over there who seem to be sleeping, and that’s about it, Paula,” he said. “Back to you in the studio.”

“Thank you, Spencer. In other news, Patrick Chris is at it again! We go live to Brandon in Hollywood . . .”

Louis pulled Harry even closer and shivered. They lay in Harry’s bed silently, listening to Brandon the news anchor talk about how famous actor Patrick Chris was spotted at the high end club in Beverly Hills offering people certain services in exchange for movie roles. Harry had only seen two of his movies, and he was pretty good in both of them, so he didn’t get why he was out there doing these things. It had started to rain, the soft _pat pat pat_ of the drops hitting his window made Harry drowsy. He looked at Louis and saw that he had fallen asleep.

He lived for these moments. There was nothing better than dealing with a hard week of school and knowing, just _knowing,_ that come Thursday evening, he’d be wrapped in Louis’ arms. Every Thursday and Friday and the weekend – that was the schedule. Sure, they saw each other at school during lunch and had one class together, but their relationship had grown into that thing you make fun of and want to throw up and hug a puppy at the same time. Harry wondered what life would be like in this small town if he had never tried out for the school musical. Zayn told him that he would have met Louis regardless because it was “fate” and Harry had told him to shut up. The school was putting up a very, very condensed version of _Rent_ and Harry had gone out to try out for the part of Angel. Little did he know that Louis Tomlinson was trying out for the part of Tom Collins and for auditions, they had to sing _I’ll Cover You_ and the explosion of chemistry was inevitable.

Needless to say, they both got each respective part and did such a good job that they even got mentioned in the town paper. They became school celebrities for a couple of weeks until the excitement had died down and Harry went back to being in the background with his three best-friends Liam, Niall, and Zayn. Except now they had added a new friend: Louis. Liam was always with his girlfriend Sophia, Niall and Zayn picked the worst times to have PDA, and Harry was just . . . there. One night, Harry and Louis were watching _American Psycho_ in Louis’ living room and kissed and that’s what sealed the deal.

\--

Louis twitched, consequently waking Harry up from his sleep.  He looked up at the window and saw through the shades that the sun was beginning to rise. The TV had been left on all night and there was an infomercial for weight loss pills playing. Harry yawned and got up as carefully as he could and began making his way to the bathroom, when the infomercial was suddenly interrupted and the words **BREAKING NEWS** flashed on the screen in big red letters. The anchor from last night, Paula, appeared on the screen looking very alarmed.

“We’ve just received word that the Governor has issued a State of Emergency, uh, something has clearly happened and we are waiting for information that – yes?” She put a hand up to her ear and she tried to keep her face steady, but Harry had seen the look of shock that had come across it. “We . . . We’re getting word that there is a mandatory evacuation for the entire state of Maine. The – the mayor will be on shortly to discuss the procedures, but for now stick with us as we go to a commercial break and will be back in just a moment.”

The infection had been around since March, and nothing had happened, really. Just a few cases of the “infected” here and there but nothing serious. There was a very serious case of it in Northern Ireland; all of the news outlets had gone on a media frenzy and sent their top people to investigate. When they got there, they were told they weren’t allowed to film and the whole thing was dropped, just like that, so no one paid attention. Until one day in May, when a small town in the south of France reported a similar outbreak. And then Italy, Rome, Spain, Russia, and Australia all came forward with reports. Panic spread, but everyone was told to remain calm. In the middle of June, every airport was closed except for one in Chicago, only to be used for first responder purposes. So they took it little by little, and then it started spreading in America. It rampaged through the lower West coast, until it took out Texas. And that’s when things started to get serious.

All the news outlets dedicated their time to telling people to remain calm and how to avoid getting infected, but not telling what exactly was going on. Who were the infected? What was the infection? As far as Harry (and everyone else) knew, you got really sick and died. That’s it. So, why all this panic?

Harry yawned again and went to relieve himself, grimacing. Leave it up to Louis to wake him up in the wee hours of the morning. He went back to bed, hoping that he’d be able to go back to sleep when the mayor appeared on the television screen. A woman with red hair and a receding hair line, she looked more somber than usual.

She spoke. “I’ve just finished speaking on the phone with the President, and things are not looking good, I’m afraid. Starting at ten o’clock this morning, we’re issuing a town wide evacuation. No cars will be used in order to minimize traffic. Buses will be waiting at the bus station and will be leaving at noon sharp. I apologize, but this will be first come first serve basis.” She looked into the camera and sighed as the reporters in the audience began asking questions.

“Well, shit,” said Louis in the sleepy voice that Harry loved.

“You’re awake, then?” Harry asked, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

“Who can sleep when you’re being so noisy in the bathroom? Jesus, Harold,” Louis giggled. “I guess I’ll have to go home and pack my things,” he said, getting up and walking over to the window and opening it.

“What are you doing? We aren’t Junior’s anymore! We graduated last month! Just walk down stairs!”

“Nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia, Haz!” Louis said, laughing as he clambered out the window. Harry sighed and smiled to himself as he remembered those late nights when Louis would sneak out and come to his house.  He sighed again and began looking for his bag.

20 minutes later, there was a knock on his door. “Are you up?” asked his dad as he walked in. Harry finished folding some pants into his bag. “Yeah,” he said.

“Good, I guess you’ve heard then,” He said, gesturing to the muted television. Harry nodded. “We’re leaving in half an hour – you heard her, first come first serve.”

“Got it! Is Gemma awake? Mum?”

“All set and ready; mum’s cooking breakfast now,” he walked the room and sat on Harry’s bed. “They won’t show it on this channel, but it’s bad. Real bad. I’ve been up all night watching a different source, and they said that these things – the infected – are undead.” Harry’s brow furrowed.

“What they’re not saying is that it spreads by being bitten. You can’t let these things bite you, Harry. Or anyone! Once you’re bitten, it’s done,” he sighed.

“You’re telling me that there are _zombies_ walking around?” Harry sniggered.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. I’ll see you downstairs in 10, so we can get going.” He got up and was halfway out the door when he turned his head and said “Also, you can tell Louis that he can use the stairs next time. Your mother and I don’t mind, honestly.”

\---

The bus depot was full to maximum capacity. Apparently everyone in town had been up at the crack of dawn and had heard the news about the first come first serve policy, and tensions were running high. The Payne’s were the first family there (“Mum woke me up at 7, can you believe that?” said a very disgruntled Liam) and the Styles’ were the second. Four large buses were parked outside. How they were supposed to hold an entire town of people, no one knew. It was a small town, yes, but four buses couldn’t possibly hold _everyone,_ no matter how large they were.Over to the side, there was a small corner designated for some last minute supplies that people could get, like phone chargers, water bottles, and canned non-perishables. Harry made his way over to the supplies with Niall, wondering about Louis’ whereabouts, when he appeared out of nowhere and linked his fingers into his.

“Nialler! How’re you?” He exclaimed.

Niall laughed. “Could be better, Lou! Just getting some things for dad,” he said, bending over to put some water bottles in his bag.

“Do you think we should get on the same bus?” asked Louis.

Niall and Harry looked at him.

“Well, if you want to ride somewhere else, then . . .” Harry said.

“No! What? I was just asking! What if you all had other plans and? And?” Louis began, but trailed away as soon as he saw Niall covering his mouth to hide his laughter. “Ah shut up, both of you,”

“Where do you think we’re going? They wouldn’t be moving us if it wasn’t this serious. I mean a _town wide_ evacuation?” Niall asked as they made their way back to their families.  

“Probably somewhere where it’s controlled?” Louis said.

“My dad told me that the infected are supposed to be dead people that came back to life,” said Harry. “Like you’re not supposed to get bitten or something or you’ll turn into one of them.”

“My mom told me the same thing but I thought she was just joking! What, oh god,” Niall sputtered.

“Whatever, don’t worry about it! We’re going to be safe and together, okay?” Louis said. Harry squeezed his hand and put his arm around Niall. They got back to the area where their families were and Zayn pouted, “Not enough room for us?” and it became a weird five-person awkward group hug.

The crowd had grown thicker since their trip to the supplies corner, and the noise had gotten louder, the air alive with the smell of un-brushed teeth and people who desperately needed deodorant. A podium had been erected at the front of the bus depot and the town Sheriff was getting ready to stand up and speak. He cleared his throat and tapped the microphone, and the noise died down.

“Folks, we are going to try to get through this as fast and efficiently as possible, so cooperation is key here,” the Sheriff said. “The first bus will be used for women and children only, so, if you would please. “ he gestured.  “Young children: Babies. Toddlers.”

The crowd murmured as several mothers and their young children began making their way onto the first bus. Six people got on the first bus, and the Sheriff waved them off as it left.

“Now, the second bus is for the elderly and people with special needs only. Yes, that includes the mentally handicapped as well.”

The elderly people shuffled onto the bus, followed by those with special needs. The bus left and the crowd had thinned, just a little, but still murmured mutinously. The Sheriff cleared his throat again.

“Okay so bus thre-“ He began but got interrupted.

“Now, wait,” said a burly voice from the middle of the crowd. Liam recognized him as his next door neighbor, Mr. Boreck, a large man that worked in the town’s lumber factory. “Them buses only took half of every’ne here, how’re we ‘posed to fit in those two? There’s lotta people here, McDavis!”

The Sheriff cleared his throat again and his eyes shifted toward the windows of the bus depot, scanning them anxiously.

“Thank you, Dan, for that observation. Bus three will be used for families with the last names T through Z!”

He was met with an uproar of complaints as he uttered the last syllable. The crowd began to push against each other, all making their way to the last two buses with no intent of following whatever direction they were about to be given. Harry felt himself get separated from Louis and his family. Zayn and Liam had disappeared somewhere into the advancing crowd; he turned to find Niall looking at him with the same perplexed face.

“Now! Please! Bus four is for the rest of you!” The Sheriff shouted into the microphone. He pulled out his gun as the crowd advanced on the podium and clocked it. Mr. Boreck’s burly voice could easily be heard in the shouts and screams as the crowd saw the gun: “Ya got a gun?! I got a gun!” and he pulled his out and fired into the air.

Pandemonium ensued. The crowd began splitting up into different directions and Harry lost all sense of what was going on. Niall grabbed on to Harry’s hand for dear life as they got shoved by people pushing and climbing over each other, screaming and shouting. Harry heard his and Niall’s names being called out but couldn’t place where they were coming from, but he screamed back. The Sheriff was yelling something, trying to calm everyone down, but was failing. Getting shoved up against the bus, Harry pulled Niall along the side until he found the door full of people clambering to get on. The bus began moving as they got on and people were still trying to get on as it picked up speed. Niall picked a seat right at the back – the only seat available – and they sat, watching as half the town was left behind. Harry scanned the bus looking for his family but didn’t see them. No Gemma. No Louis. No Liam. No Zayn. No one but a few of their classmates and other families he had never talked to.

“They must be in front of us,” Niall said, looking toward the front window. The bus in front of them had also left the depot and was speeding along the empty road that lead to the outskirts of town.

“Ni . . . did you bring your cell?” Harry asked, the thought only just occurring to him. How could he have been so stupid to leave his cell phone at home? He used it all the time and regularly got in trouble for his excessive use, but the one time that it was dire to have one, he had left it on his bedside table.

“I – well fuck, I must have left mine too!” said Niall, his face dropping. The bus sped over the bridge that leads to the town exit and they passed the goodbye sign in a blur (“Thanks’ For Visiting!”). Harry wondered if he’d ever see it again – lay in his bed again. Be in his room again. He rested his head against the vibrating bus window and felt Niall’s head fill the space between his neck and shoulder and he closed his eyes. Perhaps this was all a dream and Louis’ damn self would twitch any minute now and wake him up. . .

The bus swerved so hard that Harry’s head parted with the window and crashed into it rather hard and almost made Niall fly off his seat. Someone started screaming and Harry looked out the window to see that they had turned onto a heavily wooded road that was covered with weird looking people standing around. The bus swerved again and hit one of the people in the road. Blood splattered against the windshield and the driver swerved yet again, causing the bus to lurch to the right and hit a couple more people. The driver steered the steering wheel to the left to no avail, the bus continued to swerve in every direction until it veered off the road. It got dangerously close to the trees and hit a mound. The bus flew a couple of feet into the air and landed on the road, tiling to the left. The world became a blur of color and screams and movement as Harry and Niall flew out of their seats into the one next to them, landing hard into the window.

The left side of the bus hit the ground, shattering all the windows. Niall pulled Harry out of harm’s way as the bus slid down the road and it screeched to a halt. Niall’s adrenaline was pumping as he climbed over seats towards the front, dragging his friend along. Niall reached the front of bus and saw that the driver had a large shard of glass piercing his jugular; he avoided the pool of blood forming around the driver and pulled the lever that opened the doors. He picked up a feebly stirring Harry and helped him climb out. He followed. Downright terror filled every bone in Niall’s body as he saw the undead with their peeling skin and contorted arms walking towards them, filling the air with evil sounding snarls. “Harry,” he said, trying to compose his breathing, “Harry, wake up!” he snapped his fingers to no success. His heart rate increasing, he fought back the impulse to take off running. He couldn’t leave Harry behind, no, _no._

He felt a cold, dead hand touch his shoulder and completely lost his head. Niall shoved Harry to the ground and turned around to find himself face to face with a dead man that snapped at his face and he shoved him as hard as he could. He turned around and picked up Harry, slapping him hard, which seemed to work because his eyes opened and was followed by a “What the fuck, Niall!”

“No time, Harry! No time!”

Harry’s eyes widened as he saw the undead coming closer and they both ran toward the woods that would become their home for the next three months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this chapter! And i have some good ideas for the next. Let me know what you guys think :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait!

 

Harry tripped over a root and did some type of cartwheel before landing, hard, in the road. He looked at his palms and saw that quite a bit of skin had been ripped off and blood was rising to the surface of the wounds. Niall came crashing out behind him, tripping over himself and falling to the ground. He got to his knees and began throwing up. The sun was beginning to rise and only then did Harry realize that they had spent the entire night running. Fueled by fear and adrenalin (and the desire to not die), they hadn’t stopped, not once. Harry sat and put his head between his legs and listened to Niall dry-heave. For one thing: they had reached the road that they had seen from the cliff. Another, they were still alive after escaping an attack from the zombies. He felt his heart rate going back to normal and his breathing stabilize; he felt like sitting there for a while.

“I’ve . . . never . . . ne-never . . .” gasped Niall, “never . . . killed a person . . .! Jesus, H-H-Harry . . . I killed someone!”

“Hey,” Harry said, getting up. “You didn’t kill anyone, believe me, you didn’t.” He walked over to Niall and sat down next to him. “It was either me or you. You saved me, Niall.” Niall’s face was white as a sheet, defining his blue eyes. Specks of blood littered his perfect face, like acne that appears the day before a big event and his hands were covered in blood. Beads of sweat dripped down his face and neck and he looked at Harry, eyes swimming with tears.

“Do you have any water left?” Harry asked.

“In m’ b-bag,” Niall said and Harry carefully took off Niall’s bag and pulled out a water bottle. Niall took the bottle and downed it in one gulp and put his head on Harry’s shoulder.

“Haz, I killed someone! I’m – I ‘m – I – I- I’m going to jail,” Niall said, breathing heavily.

Harry put his arm around Niall and pulled him close. “No you’re not, trust me.”

“He always knew what to do when I had my attacks,” he said, tears falling off his face and onto Harry’s shirt.

“Who?”

“Zayn. He knew what to do whenever I felt like it was the end of the universe. He – he would hold me and play something on my guitar and sing or play with my hair and and I don’t know, it worked because I always felt safe and happy and at peace with the world,” Niall sobbed. “Now he isn’t here and I’m not sure what to do, you know?”  Harry nodded.  Fresh tears flowed down Niall’s face and Harry’s eyes began to water as the sun cast its golden rays over them and the leaf filled road.

The first night in the forest after the bus crash had been the worst. They had run through the trees until they reached a small clearing; neither of them knew what to do, but the zombies were right behind them, since the snarling sounds could still be clearly heard. Harry knew they had to move fast or risk becoming a meal for these things, so they sprinted off into the clearing and up a small hill, making sure that the zombies had gone. The night was hot and sticky and the night air was alive with the sound of cicadas and crickets that made them uneasy. Bus Three had been a little bit ahead of them, but surely someone had seen or heard their bus flip and crash, no? They waited for two days on top of the hill for help to come – but help never came. One question remained at the back of their minds: what happened to the people that were on the bus with them? Both had agreed that they were too scared to go and check. They cracked poorly made jokes to pass the time and to try to lift the mood, but nothing helped. It was the middle of a hot summer and tempers were running high.  About a week after the crash (they had moved to a more shaded area now, all hope for help lost) Harry could have sworn that Niall was getting ready to yell “fuck it,” and stomp off to go check the bus, but nothing happened. He stopped cracking jokes and laughing at the sporadic ones that Harry told, and kept to himself.  Frustrated with what his best-friend was doing and about how much he missed Louis and his family, Harry broke down one night. Niall was sleeping and Harry was slumped up against a tree, sniffling and trying not to make noise, when Niall turned his head and spat “Will you shut the hell up?” and Harry felt as if his heart was collapsing. The next morning, Niall snapped on Harry after he told him good morning. And that was the start of moody-Niall that had plagued him for the next three months. Maybe he was having a hard time adjusting to their life now or maybe he just missed Zayn or the lack of food, there were infinite possibilities as to why this sudden mood change.

\--

They sat in the middle of the road for a while, a light wind ruffling their hair and making the leaves rustle. Niall had cried himself to sleep on Harry’s shoulder and was snoozing peacefully; Harry had been nodding off every so often but forced himself awake just in case anything came at them. The wind picked up and the sunshine disappeared, replaced with dark clouds that swirled ominously. Some rain wouldn’t hurt, right? A shower was long overdue anyway. But then there was a streak of lightning and a clap of thunder that jolted Niall awake, that they knew it was time to seek proper shelter.  Getting up they decided to stick to the road and they quickly walked along it (agreeing not to run because hey, they had just spent an entire night running) looking for something to cover them from the oncoming storm; the sky had grown darker within seconds and the wind threatened to knock Harry over that he had to hang on to Niall’s arm. The wind howled and leaves blew around them as lightning illuminated the sky and fresh rolls of thunder made their bones quake.

“Harry! Do you think it’s a tornado?” shouted Niall as they struggled to keep their balance.

_Shit._ He hadn’t thought about the possibility of a tornado, what with the world ending and all. What were the proper procedures for a tornado during an apocalypse?

“I don’t know and I don’t really want to find out, to be honest!” Harry shouted back and they broke off into a run. Their legs protested as they ran down the road and came across a large green sign that was covered in vines. Niall’s heart jumped. Mile marker or “Welcome To” sign? Worse that it could be was a “Now Leaving” sign – meaning they would have to double back and brace the storm and look for the town, city, whatever they had come across.

Harry grabbed one of the vines and ripped it off, Niall following suit until nearly all of the little plants were gone and they stepped back to see what it said.

_Welcome to Morgan!  
Population: 1200_

Harry gasped and Niall cheered. Finally, after months of near starvation and sleeping on hard ground, they had reached a town. Whether it was completely deserted or full of zombies or anyone really, it didn’t matter. Something good was happening and that was it. They hugged each other and jogged toward the town, all exhaustion forgotten. _They had reached a town!_ After jogging for a short while they came across the first building. And then another. And more and more until they were in the middle of an intersection that would have been busy a couple of months ago. Stopping to catch his breath, Harry surveyed their surroundings.

Most of the buildings and stores had shattered glass that littered the street; several bullet holes could be seen in the wall of the Dunkin Donuts that Niall was peering into. Cars had been abandoned here and there and one had even smashed into a Family Dollar. There were shoes and random articles of clothing all over the street and streaks of dried blood occupied the sidewalk and walls like graffiti. Zombies stumbled around three streets down but paid no attention to the two boys. Harry looked around for somewhere that could be deemed as “safe” as the rain started coming down. They quickly went into to the Dunkin Donuts, figuring that it would be a good temporary place until the rain died down. It looked as if a bomb had gone off inside of it: chairs and tables were overturned and torn apart, part of the ceiling had caved in, light bulbs and fixtures dominated the floor and part of the front counter was missing.

“Donuts!” exclaimed Niall and took no time in going behind the front counter and trying to pry open the glass (that hadn’t been harmed in the pseudo-bomb, apparently) that held the donuts. A zombie came stumbling out of the door that leads to the kitchen and Harry froze. Niall backed up into the wall as the zombie began walking towards him, snarling and gurgling as it went. Harry tripped over himself as he looked for something to defend Niall with and he fell, re-opening the healing wounds on his palms. He noticed a chair leg a few feet away from him and grabbed it, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do. He ran behind the zombie and braced himself as he shoved the chair leg into the back of its head and it went in with a loud crunch and he heard it exit on the other side (“HARRY WHAT THE FUCK!”) and he pulled it out, breathing heavily, letting the chair leg fall with a clatter. The zombie fell and lay motionless. Niall crossed over it and hugged him.

“I know, I know.”

 ---- 

They stayed in the Dunkin Donuts for a while, waiting for the heavy rain to stop. Huddling near the entrance and occasionally checking for zombies and there were none. Maybe the rain kept them at bay? They were able to relax, kind of, and were thankful for it. There had to be a McDonald’s or a grocery store somewhere in this town, no? But what happened when they found either of them? Would the food be safe to eat or would it be stale?  Harry kept thinking about his kill. Yeah, he had done it to save his now again best-friend, but he had killed someone. Yeah, he told Niall that these things weren’t people, but he had killed something that had once been someone. He replayed the conversation from earlier to remind himself that it was okay and half convinced himself that he too would be going to jail. This thought just floated into his mind and made him laugh out loud and Niall gave him a weird look. Harry woke up late the next morning and found Niall sitting in the exact same position as the day before. “I couldn’t sleep . . . I kept seeing those things,” he explained as he saw Harry’s questioning look. Harry had dreamt about the zombies too, however, his dream had been mainly Louis wearing nothing but a Santa Claus hat.

The rain had stopped and the sky remained gray and moody with the promise of more rain later on. They gathered up their things and went off in search of better shelter. They found a hat shop that showed no signs of damage but quickly ran off that the interior was dominated by zombies.  There was a whole street of stores that had been burned down that prompted Niall to wonder out loud about what the hell had happened here. They found a McDonald’s that had been burned down and their stomachs rumbled sadly.

“Look! Over there! That sign says _Morgan Recreational Center!”_ shouted Harry, scaring the hell out of Niall. And sure enough, just behind the burned McDonald’s was a 5-story Rec Center that had no damage to the exterior except for some bullet holes and burn marks. Better yet, there was a grocery store right next to it. Harry and Niall approached the double doors of the Rec Center cautiously. Harry gripped the chair leg he had taken from the Dunkin Donuts like a baseball bat, ready to attack as Niall yanked the doors open. A foul stench attacked their nostrils and a couple of birds came flying out, but no zombies.

Harry walked in with the chair leg still raised and saw that this place was a little different than the Dunkin Donuts. No pseudo-bombs here. Wires hung from the ceiling where the tiles were missing and some of the windows were broken; the floor was stained in dark puddles of who-knows-what and the front desk had bloody handprints all over it. Papers fluttered around them in the wind like white leaves and there were a pair of elevator doors behind the front desk.

“Where do you think the smell is coming from?” asked Niall and they walked further into the room. A supplies closet was opened to the side of the room and Harry noticed some familiar shoes peeking out of it as they got closer. These shoes were real familiar, super, really familiar. He’d bought them as a birthday present and a Christmas present and they had been expensive – bought them for –

“Louis.” He gasped and dropped the chair leg. Harry was falling, falling, and falling in a whirl of color. It felt as if he had missed a step going down the stairs and never hit the ground. His vision became blurry and he couldn’t feel his legs. Did he even have legs? Eyes? Hands?! And a blonde boy swam into his vision.

“Niall?”

The boy in front of him was Niall Horan, he knew that now. Niall Horan, the new kid that came into their Geography class on their third day of middle school. Niall Horan, the one who Harry had gotten along with better than anyone in his class. The one who slept over and knew his secrets; the boy Harry had come out to when he was sure about his sexuality. The boy who had told him that it was fine and he didn’t mind and he was proud that Harry came out to him. The boy who would pull him aside at a party during their sophomore year of high school and tell him that he is gay too and he’d been seeing someone for a while.

“Harry, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not him,” said Niall, hugging him again. Harry broke into a sweat as the next question entered his thoughts but Niall seemed to read his mind and said “Or Zayn. Or anyone that we know. Not our families, not Liam. It’s okay.”

“Hey! A directory!” Niall said and bent over to pick it up. Harry slowly walked toward the supply closet and glanced in. Ten bodies had all been shoved in and were decomposing badly and if Law and Order: SVU had taught him anything it was that this had been recent.

“Floor 1: main lobby, help desk, pool, elevators,” Niall read out loud.

“Floor 2: gym, sauna, spa, in-door pool, nurse’s station, kitchen – hey, a kitchen!  
Floor 3: in-door track, weight room, movie center.  
Floor 4: conference rooms.  
Floor 5: main offices and surveillance rooms.” He finished.

The second floor of the Rec Center was no different than the first floor – albeit there was a lot less damage. Some of the gym elliptical’s had been tipped over and there were puddles of water all around the place. More wires hung from the parts where ceiling tiles were missing and the two high windows that dominated the scene were completely broken. The nurse’s station was right next to the racquet ball room and they entered, looking for some first aid kits. A little room just off the nurse’s station had several cots to sleep on and Harry examined them. There were two other separate rooms that the cots could be taken in to sleep in and Harry debated on taking one of them in there.

“Harry,” said Niall in a small voice. “Can we – can we put the beds together? Next to each other? In the same room, I mean.”

Harry looked at Niall and saw his face full of worry and looked away, smiling. He had decided against taking the cot into the other room and separating from Niall and was happy that he had brought it up. They felt the same way about it and really, it had been a stupid idea from the start. They dragged two cots into the center of the gym where it was empty and kind of clean. Night had come and it brought stronger rain and powerful gusts of wind that chilled them to the bone and lightning that lit up the room.

Deciding to explore the rest of the Rec Center in the morning and to not keep watch because what were the chances of zombies climbing up the damn stairs? They fell asleep slowly, the thunder waking them up every time it boomed.

Harry was still awake when Niall’s voice came out of the darkness from the cot next to him.

“I was as scared as you were today – when I went to look at the closet. I imagined our mum’s and dad’s and Liam and Zayn and Gemma and Lou . . . I was scared, Haz. More scared than I am about the zombies. But, I guess, in a way, we’re all orphans now. Know what I mean?”

And Harry saw no reason to argue because yes, in a way, he was right.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :))))

_“Haz,” Louis whispered._

_Harry looked at him. “What?”_

_“I have to . . . uh . . . ask you something,”_

_“Okay what is it?” Harry hoped he wasn’t sounding rude. He was just really into the movie okay._

_“Will you . . . will you – uh – will –“ Louis tripped over his words._

_“Come on, spit it out,” Harry said sweetly._

_“Will you be my boy- make a sandwich Jesus Christ I asked you this 2 hours ago,” Louis demanded and Harry looked at him and saw that he was morphing into a girl – but realized that the girl was Gemma and that this Gemma had disproportionate limbs  and wings and_

Harry opened his eyes. Of all the dreams he had had, this one by far takes the cake as the weirdest one. He breathed and switched positions so he was looking at the heap that was Niall to his left. Like clockwork, he had woken up in time to watch the sunrise. The sky was pale blue and the moon was still visible and song birds could be heard nearby.

He sat up and stretched. He grabbed both of their rucksacks and emptied the contents onto his cot. Niall had said something about doing inventory and he supposed that today’s trip to the grocery store might replenish whatever they were missing. He separated each of their things into two piles: Niall’s bag contained four water bottles that were still full, an empty pack of gum, his iPod (Harry was quick to check for WiFi before the thing died), headphones, batteries, his clothes, and a pack of noodles. He scoffed and turned to his pile: the badly beaten notebook, some pencils, clothing, sunglasses, and more water bottles.  He scoffed again and honestly, he thought, it’s a damn miracle they were even still alive. Then again, they _had_ packed thinking they were going somewhere safe with everyone else.

Harry sighed and looked for a bathroom. He found them next to the sauna and the in-door pool and saw that they were big, equipped with showers. Did the water still run? He turned a tap and was saddened to see that no, it didn’t. Very little light from the surrounding windows lit up the place and he didn’t bother flicking a light switch because surely the power didn’t work anymore. He relieved himself and made his way out of the bathroom and a neon green sticky note that was on the wall caught his attention. It was a grocery list calling for eggs, milk, and canned beans. The handwriting was familiar and Harry couldn’t place a hand on where he had seen it before . . .

He examined it for a while longer, trying to remember where he had seen the handwriting before. He knew but he didn’t at the same time and just reading the word “eggs” in that spindly little handwriting made his stomach growl. He left the sticky note on the wall and walked back over to the cots and waited for Niall to wake up. He tapped his foot against the floor and wondered why the hell he was being so impatient this morning.

Harry motioned to tap Niall’s shoulder and stopped himself. Niall had slept through the night without waking up and he didn’t sleep the day before that, so maybe this was a bad idea. His hand hovered over Niall and he decided to let the boy sleep. Figuring he would make it up to him later when he came back from the store with food, he got up, picked up the chair leg, and made his way down the stairs. Avoiding his gaze from the supply closet and covering his nose he went outside and was greeted with the cool morning air.

The grocery store grew larger as he approached it. The sliding glass doors were missing and a car had crashed into the side of it. There were still signs posted up on the windows (that weren’t damaged) reading “50% OFF ALL MEATS!” and “Grape Juice now with 10% more grape”. Harry wondered how much grape a grape juice could hold as he neared the entrance. The floor of the store was littered with broken glass and he stepped carefully over it, holding the chair leg tightly. His shoe made a loud – crunch – as he stepped on broken glass and he froze – waiting for something to come out of the dark aisles; the sun was still rising and there wasn’t enough light to light up the whole store.

He remained silent and unmoving for a couple of minutes and nothing came out at him. There was an orange flashlight laying on the floor a couple of feet away from him and he slowly walked toward it, the glass still crunching beneath his feet. Picking it up, he clicked the ON button and it nearly blinded him but hey, it worked! Pleased with the outcome he pointed it away from his face and shone it down an aisle. He examined the shelves from his position and found that it was bread and wine – maybe they could have a little drink? He tiptoed into the aisle and began checking the various loaves of bread that remained and they all looked pretty good. So did the wine. He put some of them in his empty bag and backed out of the aisle.

_“So far, so good”,_ He thought. He pointed the flashlight to the left and slowly continued in that direction. Most of the cash registers had been completely emptied out and there were blood stains all over the wall and a single, decapitated body had been thrown carelessly against the bathroom doors. Harry looked down the aisles he passed and was wary about the lack of zombies he had encountered since entering the store and he realized he thought too soon as one came lunging out at him from the dark as he pointed his flashlight elsewhere.

They embraced in some weird pirouette and the zombie man tried to bite his ear as they spun and Harry hoped he wasn’t making too much noise as they spun around because there was no way he could do this without Niall and he realized how much of a bad idea this was as he pushed with all his might and the zombie tumbled over and landed in a pyramid of cans for baked beans. All at once, the cans tumbled to the ground, making all the noise imaginable.  The cans rolled around and he heard them: a dozen or so gargle snarling sounds erupt from all around him and he gripped his weapon at the ready. He looked down at the other side of the store and there were several of them stumbling toward him. He walked backwards, keeping his eyes on the zombies advancing on him and he tripped over the one he had thrown into the pyramid of beans.

Harry fell, hard, on his back, and heard the wine glasses shatter inside his bag and felt his shirt become soaked with wine. The zombie was crawling toward him and he noticed that his chair leg had left his hand and he grabbed a can of beans and smashed it once, twice, three times into its head. Getting up, he felt something grab him from behind and he swirled around, face to face with another zombie. He shoved it, running down an aisle to the other end and meeting up with even more. Sunlight bathed the store in golden light and he was able to see the rest of them – a whole mob was descending upon him. He looked around frantically, not knowing what to do as they entered from both sides of the aisle.

Last minute decisions were always his forte and he laughed as he climbed up the shelf in front of him. Harry climbed on top of the store shelf and it swayed precariously as he balanced himself. The zombies had all grouped together at the bottom and here snatching at him. He weighed his choices – One, he could stand there like a complete dope and hope that someone came along (preferably Niall) or two, jump from shelf to shelf like some kind of monkey. He moved his body and prepared to jump and the shelf swayed even more, rocking back and forth, knocking what few items were on them off. He jumped.

He managed to make it to the top of the other shelf, but did not manage to balance, so he fell off and landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He heard the shelf topple over with a loud BOOM and the obvious squishing of bodies. Harry knew he had to get out of there and fast. Getting up, he took off his bag and shoved whatever he saw on the shelf while running down the aisle, making too much noise as he went. Harry stopped at the end, preparing to unleash his inner track star; that week-and-a-half- of track meets were about to pay off. And he was off, sprinting past the hoard of zombies that barely turned to look at him as he ran past them. He ran out into the morning as fast as he could, wind howling in his ear and his hair getting a mind of its own and flapping around his face. By the time he was half way up the steps at the Rec Center entrance, the zombies had barely exited the grocery store. Harry hid behind the double doors and peeked out from a cracked window and breathed a sigh of relief.

No more than fifty of them came out of the store and onto the street, filling the air with the gurgling sounds. Harry went upstairs and found that Niall was still asleep, oblivious to everything. 

\- - - 

“You’re telling me that _you_ fought off all those things?” asked Niall when Harry had finished telling him the story.

Harry nodded. “Yep! And we should make a name for them, so we know what to say and not just say ‘things’, ya know?” This good mood was weird. He attributed it to the fact that what he’d thrown into his bag was actually edible and good. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“I’m still calling your shit, Styles! Are you sure you didn’t just dream it?” said Niall. He’d been so wrapped up into the story that he’d forgotten to breathe a couple of times.

“It’s true! And if it was a dream where the hell did I get this,” - he pointed at the canned beans, bread, baby wipes, flavored water packets, canned corn, pancake mix, and beef jerky - “from?”

Niall gave him a look. “What about the eggs . . .?”

“I told you I was attacked! I’m hoping they all cleared out and we can go back later, or tomorrow,” Harry said.

They spent the rest of the day rationing out the beef jerky and cracking jokes (which made both of them happy because it was such a nostalgic moment) until it started raining again and Harry suggested that they go and check out the rest of the Rec Center.

The third floor had been ravaged by a fire and was home to thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes. They deemed it uninhabitable and forbidden.

The fourth floor held a couple of corpses that had long since withered away – almost mummified. Harry found a perfectly good, empty notebook and was happy because he could start writing again.

The fifth floor had one lonely Zombie, which was the name they had given the “things”, that was missing its torso and posed no type of threat since it couldn’t even move. There was a cell phone with its screen so cracked that they couldn’t tell what was on the home screen. It turned off shortly after.

All in all, the second floor of the Rec Center was the place to be. The water of the indoor pool had turned a pale green and smelled like eggnog, the kitchen was another story. It looked as if it had been cleaned the day before and was in pristine condition. Decorated with stainless steel everything and Niall nearly cried when he saw that there were multiple fridges; actually cried when they opened three of them and found them empty. The stoves were gas powered and Niall said he would have no problem cooking them up a meal if they found some decent ingredients. Harry remembered the time he tried to make Chicken Alfredo for his anniversary with Louis and almost burned down Louis’ house.

The rain brought thunder and lightning that provided a mostly silhouetted view of the town they were in. The Zombie’s from the grocery store had all stumbled away and tomorrow would be the perfect opportunity to roam through the store. The day had been good to both of them and Niall happily laid on his cot, munching on some beef jerky, and fell asleep. Harry pulled out the notebook and lit the flashlight and sprawled out on his cot and wrote the first entry.

_11 October,_

_At least I think that’s the date, haha. It’s been good, notebook. Very good. I feel like something bad’s gonna happen soon with how good it has been. How’ve you been? Remember when I told you that I thought Niall was getting ready to leave me? Well, he didn’t! I can’t believe I let myself believe that. Honestly, what the hell. Still missing everyone and hoping they’re okay. Since the last time we spoke we got attacked by the Zombies, found a new town, got attacked again, and found new shelter. It’s raining at the current moment and the wind is pushing the rain into our room like. . . I’m cold. Oh! Niall found a radio in the kitchen and it is battery powered. We’re testing it tomorrow to see if we get signal. I’m excited._

He closed the notebook and figured he’d have more things to write about as the days went by. He shut the flashlight off and went to sleep.

Their trip to the grocery store was memorable. As Harry had said, the Zombie’s had left the vicinity and they were free to roam at their leisure. They found some shopping carts and took turns riding them like surfboards down the aisles. It was fun until Harry fell off and landed in a paper towel display and Niall almost pee’d himself laughing. There were three cartons of eggs left and they were in good condition (for some reason, the freezer still worked despite there being no electricity). They found some noodles that would expire in a week, candles, and some more canned corn.

“Haz, do you think we could use this?” asked Niall, holding up a box of baking soda.

“Has it expired? Are we gonna bake cookies for the Zombies?” Harry giggled.

Niall scoffed. “If I can find some flour – we can – make – cookies,” he said, rummaging through debris and food, “for – ourselves – AHA!” He pulled out a sack of flour. “Expires next month!”

“But . . . how are we going to make cookies? The oven needs electricity and we have none of that! Come to think of it, how are we going to power the stoves?” Harry said, frowning.

“Never fail to amaze me, Harry. We can use the sun to bake the cookies. An _all natural_ oven! And the stoves are gas powered, no? Just light a match and waalaa.” Niall’s optimism was what kept him going most days.

Harry looked at the entrance of the store. “Sun’s setting. We should go before our – er – friends come looking for us,” he said, winking.

Niall sniggered and gathered up the things they had salvaged that day and they began walking back to the Rec Center. The sky was a pool of pink and purple and not a single dark cloud was around. Harry wondered if, somewhere out there, Louis was looking at the exact same sunset. He felt connected to him at that moment and he glanced at Niall, who was also looking at the sky and knew he was thinking about the same thing, but with Zayn.

“Chef Horan in the house!” Niall called as they reached the second floor and he dashed off into the kitchen. “Harry, I’ll need the flashlight!”

Harry took the flashlight to the kitchen and set it on the counter. Surprisingly, it lit up quite a bit of the kitchen.

“Matches . . . Matches . . . Where the hell?” Niall wondered aloud as he searched his pockets.

“Oh! Here!” Harry said, tossing them at him. Niall lit one and Harry held his breath as he dropped it onto the top of the stove. Nothing happened for a second and then . . . whoosh, fire. Both of them cheered.

“Now, if you’ll kindly leave, please. A genius needs privacy,” Niall said, and Harry laughed and left.

Really, it had turned out to be one of the best days in a while, he thought as he walked back to his cot to light the candles they’d gotten at the store. Harry lit them and strategically placed them around their little home type thing, ensuring that the candles lit up just enough for them to see properly.

He grabbed the battery-powered radio that Niall had found and put some batteries in and turned it on. Silence was all that came out of the speakers and he tuned it to different frequencies. He tuned it to his favorite station from back home and was met with silence.

The smell coming from the kitchen was delightful. It seemed that Niall was making noodle and egg soup – but had added something that was giving it flavor and life. Harry gave into temptation and got up, planning to stand in the middle of the bathroom and the kitchen to get a glimpse of whatever Niall was doing. He remembered the sticky note and went to peel if off the wall.

“Niall,” he said, entering the kitchen. “Have –“

“OUT! Not yet!” shouted Niall and Harry rolled his eyes and went back to the cots.

He grabbed the radio and turned the dial fast, was met with a blur of words, and his heart paused. He turned the dial backwards, slowly, and music, clear as day, filled the room. Harry almost dropped the radio and he set it carefully on the cot and listened.

_“Cradle me_  
 _I’ll cradle you_  
 _I’ll win your heart_  
 _with a whoop-a-whoop_ “

“Oh,” he whispered. He had danced to this song with Louis at prom, a nice little slow dance. He got up and mimicked their dance from that night. He held his arms out in front of him, closed his eyes, and moved his body.

“ _Lay with me, I’ll lay with you  
we’ll do the things that lovers do”_

Harry was back at prom and Louis was in front of him. Louis’ tux had been red velvet that only he could pull off. Harry’s was the black standard prom suit, fitted to match his needs. He looked down at Louis and the green met the blue and their lips met and it was just a sweet moment that Zayn caught on camera.  

“Harry?”

Harry opened his eyes and realized the song had ended, replaced by Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”.

“I – oh,” He stammered. Niall stared at him for a couple of seconds while Stevie Nicks sang; knowing that he’d stumbled upon a personal moment.

“’s alright, Zayn loves this song,” Niall said. “Wait! You got the radio working!?”

“Yes!”  Harry said, grateful that the awkward moment was thrown out the window.

“Well, we can eat with some tunes then. Wish my iPod worked, I brought the aux cable . . .”

Niall had indeed made some noodle and egg soup and the smell that made his stomach squirm was a secret ingredient that Niall refused to tell until Harry threatened to throw up.

“Fuck! Okay. I added some salt and get this – a little, literally – “ he held up his index finger and his thumb and squished them together “- this much of seasoning. I found it in one of the cupboards.”

“It. Is. Delicious. Chef Horan did good,” Harry said.

“Did _well_ ,” Niall corrected him.

Harry threw his shoe at him, laughing. He remembered about the sticky note and pulled it out of his pocket.

“I found this in the bathroom, I’ve seen that handwriting before but I don’t know where,” He said, handing it to Niall.

Niall stared at the letters and looked at Harry, back down at the words, up at Harry again, and then back down again. A surge of electricity went through his body and he felt it come out every pore in his body; excitement coursed through every vein and muscle and his eyes welled up with tears.

“Harry!” He said, his voice shaking with glee, “Harry, oh my god, this – what – this is _Zayn’s_ handwriting! He – they – were here!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oOoOoOoOo flashbacks

**July 2013**

“Louis, Gemma, come on!” Liam begged, tugging at his friends elbows. Everyone else had run away already – into the woods, back down the road, crossing over the tree trunk that lead over the river. Their bus driver lay on the ground, bloody and groaning after being attacked by Mr. Borek when he, the driver, pulled a gun on him. The events leading up to this moment still remained a haze in Louis’ head. He remembered watching Harry and Niall’s bus tip over and all hell breaking loose on their bus when their driver refused to stop. He threatened that he would stop the bus and let the infected on, stating that he “knew what they could do.” Zayn and Louis stared out of the back window, watching as the wooded road got farther and farther away, all hope fading away. The bus continued until they reached a river and the bridge was missing. The driver yelled at the top of his lungs and had woken practically everyone up (except for the boys because their adrenalin was still pumping) and kicked them off the bus. The driver, it appeared, was suffering from a psychotic break, and he yelled obscenities to everyone as he took out a bucket of gas and poured it all over the interior of the bus.

There was an uproar at this as well, people shouting about why couldn’t he use it to put gas and fill the tank up? And the driver ignored them as he lit a match and lit the bus on fire; a woman started screaming at him and he pulled out a gun and shot her, point blank, in the head. All hell broke loose as panic broke the tension and they all scattered like little ants. The driver turned his gun at someone else, ready to shoot, but was unfortunately apprehended by a tackling Mr. Borek.

Louis and Gemma stared at the burning bus and Liam begged them to move and they turned and ran with the rest of their families, following the river.

Darkness fell upon the sixteen of them and the night was hot and sticky. They made camp around a large oak tree next to the river and pretended to sleep. Zayn spent the whole night calling Niall and Harry until his phone died and he chucked it into the river out of anger (immediately regretting the decision). The parents split away from the boys, Gemma, and Sophia and talked in hushed voices and they announced that they were leaving to look for Harry and Niall. Louis, Gemma, and Zayn rose quickly, preparing to leave as well, but were told they weren’t coming along. Sophia protested against this, yelling that she wouldn’t let her mother go alone. The parents and Sophia left the next day after tearful “see you later’s!” and Louis, Zayn, Liam, and Gemma were left to wait for everyone under the oak tree.

They kept track of the time on their slowly dying phones and week full of anxiety and impatience had passed when a bloody and bruised Sophia came stumbling out from behind a tree.

“What happened?!” cried Liam, running forward as she fell to the ground.

“Those things – those things came at us!” Sophia sobbed. “Please, please, we have to go, they were behind me the entire way back!”

And they struggled to cross the river to get to the other side. The water was cold and rough and threatened to knock them over. They reached the opposite bank and heard some type of strange noise behind them and they turned to see ten bodies, some already splashing into the river.

Sophia’s shriek confirmed that these were the things that had attacked her and their families.

**August 2013**

They had spent the last remaining days of July waiting in the forest beyond the river, watching as the Zombies (which they had so appropriately named) stumbled past them, waiting for someone to turn up. No one did and they were forced to accept the fact that their parents were probably gone or were waiting for them somewhere safe. All of their phones were dead except for Liam’s, and they kept track of time and the days on Liam’s phone, which was slowly dying; they called Niall and Harry and their families at least once a day.

“Is that a house?” asked Gemma, breaking the silence. They were walking through a wheat field that had been overpowered by tall grass, and it tickled their faces. The day was sunny, breezy, and downright beautiful – perfect for a beach trip.

In the distance there was a two-story house that appeared to be abandoned. Two of the upstairs windows had been broken and the front door, they saw as they got near, was ajar. There was an uneasy and unnerving feeling that all of them felt as they got closer to the house; all of them exchanging looks as Louis looked into the front windows.

He peered into the left window and despite the dust that had gathered on the windowsill, nothing appeared to be out of place. Louis moved to the right window and got a view of the kitchen and nothing appeared to be different there either. Glancing back at the rest of the pack, he walked over to the front door and opened it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something came flying out of the house with such force that it knocked Louis into Gemma and they both fell over. Zayn tried to catch both of them and he too fell. There was a shriek and Liam went falling backwards into the tall grass. The sound that they had heard in the river and in the woods – the weird gurgling snaring sound – filled the air. Louis scrambled to his feet as the Zombie attacked a squirming Sophia. She screamed loudly as it sunk its teeth into her neck and ripped it out; Liam got up at that exact moment and made an inhumane noise and rugby tackled it.

Gemma pulled a knife out of her bag and ran forward to help Liam. She stabbed the Zombie square between the eyes, merciless and suddenly, as if she didn’t think twice. Blood flew up at both of them as she retracted the knife and the Zombie lay motionless. She helped Liam up and they went to help Zayn and Louis carry Sophia into the house. Blood squirted out of her neck wound at all of them as they lowered her onto a couch in the living room and she choked on her own blood.

Gemma seemed to be the only one who was actually processing what was currently happening and she shouted at Zayn to get some towels.

“Okay – Liam, I need you to – Liam? – LIAM! Shit he’s out; Lou, take him over there, please!” she yelled, applying pressure on the open wound. “ZAYN, THE TOWELS!”

“Here! Here!” shouted Zayn, running out of the kitchen holding a handful of towels.

“Thank you! Okay we need to – to – to stop the bleeding and – and try to close the wound but I don’t have any tools so like . . . “Gemma stuttered. Sophia gasped for air as Gemma and Zayn panicked about what to do and that was when she, Sophia, knew that she was a goner.

“I saw this on _Grey’s Anatomy_ once but I don’t remember what happened and shit, where’s Harry when you need him!?” Gemma cried.

Sophia’s hand searched for Gemma’s and found it and she tugged on it, bringing her down and whispered in her ear. “L. . . Lia . . . Liam . . .”

Gemma whirled around and found Liam being restrained by Louis. “Let – I mean, bring him,” she said quietly.

Liam ran forward and cupped Sophia’s face into his hands, drenching them in blood. She leaned forward and whispered something in his ear and she laid back down again, took a shuttering breath, and knew no more. Putting both hands over his mouth, Liam stumbled backwards into a wall and slowly slid down it until he was sitting. Gemma, Louis, and Zayn stared at Sophia’s lifeless body, the realization crashing down on them like a tsunami.

“My, my dad told me you can’t get bitten and I think this is why . . .” said Gemma. “Lou. Louis. We should check the rest of the house, just in case,”

Both of them left, cautiously walking up the stairs. Zayn turned to look at his friend, who was sitting on the floor hyperventilating.

“Liam?” Zayn cooed, approaching him. He sat down next to him. Liam flinched, apparently not aware that Zayn had just sat next to him. He stared at Zayn with wide eyes, shaking uncontrollably.

“Do you know what just happened, Zayn? She – she _died_ and there wasn’t anything I could do about it . . .  I told her I’d always keep her _safe_ but I think I failed. Did I fail?” Liam’s voice cracked and tears fell down his cheeks.

“No, no. You didn’t fail. I know, you know, and she knows. You didn’t fail, Li,” Zayn said.

“It feels like I did . . . we were together since s-sophomore year – do you remember when I asked her out? I think you were there . . . we did everything together, you know. First for everything. I – I don’t – I don’t even know right now. Like.” Zayn remembered exactly how Liam had asked Sophia to be his girlfriend. Liam and Sophia had been talking for a while now and the time had come (Sophia had once confided in Zayn, asking why Liam hadn’t asked her yet. Zayn never told Liam) and they agreed to meet at the mall where Zayn and Harry worked at. It was Thursday afternoon, center court: Sophia was doing some shopping with Niall, wondering about where Liam was, when he walked up in front of her holding a bunch of sunflowers.

_“Each of the petals have reasons why you’re amazing and the best,” Liam had said, trying his hardest not to stutter. “The last one, which is here, is the most important one.” He plucked the petal and handed it to her._

_“Will you be my girlfriend?”_

_Sophia looked up, tears in her eyes, and said yes._

“Can I put my hand on your shoulder? Is that okay?” Zayn asked.

“W-what?” Liam was brought back to earth from his reprieve by the question.

Zayn was so used to asking this question when he was calming Niall down from one of his panic attacks, that he didn’t think it was weird to other people.  Gemma and Louis came back down the stairs, giving the all clear sign, and draped a white sheet over Sophia’s body. They sat on the floor in front of Zayn and Liam.

“Liam, oh god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to – I didn’t know it was there - “ Louis began, but Liam cut him off.

“Lou,” he said softly, “I don’t blame you. None of us could have known it was there. You did everything you could – a- all of you did everything and I’m grateful . . . Thanks, by the way, for the white sheet. I don’t . . . can’t . . .” he trailed away.

The four of them sat there, listening to the swish of the wind outside. It felt like they had been there for days, even though the sun was barely beginning to set. None of them had ever really thought about what the course of action would be when, _if_ , one of their own fell. Louis didn’t let his thoughts stray anywhere near the idea of one day finding Harry somewhere, sprawled on the ground. He felt weird being more worried about him than Gemma, like he’s her _brother_ , for goodness sake. But then again, is this what love felt like? Louis glanced at Gemma and saw that she was leaning against the back of the couch, sleeping with her mouth slightly opened. He made a mental note to keep her safe, though; she could kick some serious ass.

The house was dark and there was something rasping nearby. Louis got up, being careful not to wake any of the others, and looked out of the window. The sight was eerie and dark but he couldn’t find the source of the rasping that was growing louder. He heard something shift and he turned around quickly. No one had moved at all and his eyes scanned the area. Could it be a trick of the light or had the white sheet just moved? Louis’ breathing quickened and his heart pounded. The rasping was coming from beneath the sheet as well and it shifted some more.

_No._ This was not happening.

And then it rose like the monster in one of the horror movies he had watched with Harry. Louis watched as the sheet slid off and saw Sophia’s face in the semi-darkness. It had turned a sickly shade of grey and was starting to peel off; spider-web veins lined her cheeks and the same gurgling noise that had proven to be nothing but anguish and terror came from her mouth.

Liam was woken up by the noise and this was the part Louis had been dreading the most. Liam got up and Louis watched as he looked at his now ex-girlfriend and then at Louis, a look of utter defeat on his face. Sophia snarled at them and tripped getting off the couch, falling hard onto the floor, waking up Zayn and Gemma.

“Please. Someone.” Liam said and he walked out of the house.

**September 2013**

 After the incident in August, all of them kept their guard up unnaturally high. Jumping at the slightest noise, triple checking whatever source of shelter they found for Zombies, and sometimes staying up for multiple nights at a time. Liam’s phone died and now they truly didn’t know what day it was. Last time they checked it was September 19th and they’d manage to keep track of the days after that, but pretty soon the days became blurs and they lost track.

Liam was another thing they had to worry about. Ever since that night in August when Gemma had built up the courage to kill the Infected Sophia, he’d been weirdly quiet about it. At first they thought it was just his way of coping – keeping it inside for the sake of the others. He insisted it was fine, really, but none of them believed him. You don’t just get over the death of someone you loved just like that. There had to be something up, but most days he refused to talk about it.

“This isn’t good, Li. Please talk to us,” Zayn had begged him one night and was greeted with a steely silence.

The countryside became their friend. They preferred it to the woods, where it was creepy at night and everything made noise. Several towns appeared on their radar but all proved to be infested with the Zombie’s and uninhabitable. They stayed there for maybe two or three days and then continued their journey to who knows where, repeating the process once they found another town. Twice they considered just turning around and heading in a different direction and came close to doing it, but Liam spotted some buildings in the distance and they went for it.

They passed a ‘now leaving’ sign for a town called Morgan and it was disserted, apart from a few Zombies here and there. They killed most of them, not wanting a repeat of what had happened before.

“Where should we set up camp?” asked Liam, pulling his knife out of a Zombie’s back.

“I think we should look around. I don’t like the look of these buildings, look, there’s a lot of smoke over there,” Louis said.

Sure enough, black smoke was filling the sky and completely blocked out the sun. It looked like the fires had been set recently and ash fell from the sky like snow.  They walked down the street, passing boarded up businesses and they rounded up on a grocery store and the need for food overpowered them and they went for it.

Gemma pulled out her knife and entered the store, Zayn following suit. Louis and Liam inspected the outside of the store.

“Nothing inside!” Gemma called when she was done.

“Yeah, same out here! And I think we found somewhere to settle in for the next couple’a days!” Louis called back and Gemma and Zayn came out of the store.

“Where?” asked Zayn, holding onto a box of noodles.

Liam pointed toward a large building that they soon discovered was a Rec Center. The first floor was a complete mess and some bodies in the supplies closet unnerved them to no end; blood was still oozing from several bodies, making it certain that this had happened recently too.

“Harry bought me those shoes,” commented Louis.

“Do you think they’re going to . . . turn?” Liam said quietly.

“No, it looks like they already did – I – shit,” Gemma said, getting nearer to the closet. She covered her nose and saw that the bodies had the same complexion that Sophia had: grey, peeling skin and spider-webbed veins. “Someone took care of them already.”

“There’s a staircase, should we . . .?” asked Louis and Zayn nodded. They opened the door, ready for attack, but nothing came and they waited for the others.

“Liam?” Gemma said softly. Liam was gazing at the bodies and gave Gemma the same puppy dog face that he’d given Zayn. “Leeyum,” she said softly, “come on,” and she took his hand and they made their way up the stairs.

After inspecting the third, fourth, and fifth floors the second floor proved to be more useful. The cracked phone that Liam found told them (after much deciphering) that it was the 29th of September. The third floor was plagued with pesky mosquitoes that covered the walls and the fifth floor was nothing special, the second floor had a kitchen and Louis found a couple of bottles of wine in one of the fridges. None of them had ever drank much before, with the exception of prom (and homecoming, in Gemma’s case), but the time seemed appropriate.

Nightfall came and the full moon was bright, shrouding everything in blue.

“What are you doing, Zee?” asked Louis. His words were starting to slur and Liam, the one who wasn’t drinking, knew that he’d have to cut him off soon.

“Nada. Zip. Zero!” Zayn said, scribbling something on a bright green sticky note.

“Your ambiguity never ceases to amaze me,” Louis giggled.

“If you _must_ know,” Zayn said dramatically, “I’m making a grocery list because hello, we need to eat!”

Liam and Gemma laughed out loud and Louis frowned.

“Are you planning on going now, or?”

“T-tomorrow actually – I have to go to the . . . the bathroom now,” Zayn said, standing up and swaying. “That wine is upsetting my tummy, Lou.” He clapped a hand to his mouth and tripped over himself as he ran toward the bathroom. They soon heard the sounds of Zayn retching in the bathroom.

“Why I never! Such disrespect.” Hiccupped Louis. His eyelids got heavy and he laid himself down. “’m sleep,” he said and closed his eyes. Liam took of his jacket and put it over Louis.

“Friends, I fear I come with bad news. And some good news, too. Who wants – oh! He fell asleep. He’ll miss out.” Announced Zayn as he returned.

“Bad news first!” Liam said. “I think the good news is that dog you’ve got there,” he added, pointing to the German shepherd that was panting behind Zayn.   

“Bad news – I lost the sticky note somewhere in the bathroom. No groceries I’m afraid. Good news – HEY! How’d you know about the dog? I found her in the bathroom, cowering in a stall. She’s friendly!”

“Ohhhh, what’s her name?!” Gemma asked, startling Liam. He thought she was asleep this whole time.

“Hailey! Like Hailey’s Comet.”

Hailey cautiously walked toward both of them, sniffed a snoring Louis, and sniffed Liam. She licked his face, which made him giggle, and then sniffed Gemma and laid down next to her.

“Seal of a-a-approval,” Zayn yawned. He sat down and slumped over. A snore later told Liam he was gone. Liam got up searched his bag and found a sweater to put on Zayn; he did the same for Gemma. The nights had gotten chilly and he sat down again, next to Hailey. He went to sleep patting her soft fur, happy that something so lovely had come out of the horror they’d experienced the past few months.

None of them woke up with a hangover the next morning and they were off with the newest addition to the crew. They exited the town, surveying the damage that the fires had caused. Walking down a heavily wooded road, Liam couldn’t help but smile.

**October 2013**

“.  . . And it sucks, you know?  I feel like I lost a part of me – no, I did lose a part of myself. And it really fucking sucks, Zayn. Like, I once had a dream of me in a tux about to marry this girl and now – it won’t happen. Is it weird to feel this way or am I just weird in general? I’m sorry, I don’t want to dump this on you, but I can’t keep it in anymore. The glue that held it together fell apart, I’m guessing? I’m so confused. And it doesn’t help that I hate myself more and more everyday for _leaving_ the fucking house. Somewhere in that body, Sophia was still conscious.”  

Two months later and Liam had finally boiled over. Zayn was happy and he listened to his best-friend vent because, hey, what are friends for?

They had been traveling for a while now, walking straight through the night sometimes. Hailey kept them all alive and brought joy to the otherwise exhausting mood that was so keen to catch up to them. Today, they were by a lake they’d stumbled upon the night before. It was surrounded by trees and it looked like something out of a postcard. Louis and Gemma were spear-fishing for fish with spears they had fashioned out of large sticks and Hailey was having the time of her life, splashing in the water and barking happily.

Liam finished his venting session with a pant and Zayn hugged him.

“It took a lot for you to tell me that, Li, and I’m happy you did,” Zayn smiled.

“DINNAH!” yelled Louis from the water, holding up a big fish.

“You’re joking?!” Zayn yelled as they ran to join Louis and Gemma at the shore. Hailey’s tail swished back and forth and she jumped around.

“All it takes is concentration! There’s a lot of fish around here – you just have to concentrate and be patient,” Gemma explained, drying off her feet. “And, it looks like we’ve got visitors,” she added and pointed at the tree line where three Zombie’s were stumbling out of.

Hailey growled and got into attack-stance, teeth bared. The Zombie’s walked toward them, mouths snapping and the familiar snarling noise reaching their ears. Zayn felt Liam tense up next to him and he squeezed his hand.

Gemma raised her spear, pulled her arm back, and threw it at one of the Zombie’s. The spear pierced its head and decapitated it, landing near a tree. She grabbed her knife out of her pocket and stabbed the other two. The boys stared at her, open mouthed.

“You,” Louis said as he turned back to the water to hunt for more fish, “are not to be messed with. Ever.”

That night they had the best dinner they had had in a while. Liam’s boy scout past came in handy when he started a fire and they rotated the fish over it until it smelled good.

\- - - - - - 

“How the HELL did we end up in Ohio?” Louis asked, staring at the ‘Cleveland City Limits’ sign.

“Have we really walked that much? I – really, we came from Maine. Cross country road trip, anyone?” Liam said.

“It definitely is. Should we keep going?” Gemma asked.

“Might as well. This place is pretty big, there could be help.”

“What do you think, girl? Is it safe?” Liam asked, kneeling down to pet Hailey. She sniffed and wagged her tail.

If the dog thought it was safe, then, well, they might as well trust its intuition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly this wasn't my favorite piece of work i feel like i could have done better but


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> timelines are still all over the place but trust me, it all works out.

 

Just the mere fact that Zayn and everyone else (as far as they knew) had been in the Rec Center was enough to keep Harry and Niall going for a couple of days. Once or twice Harry had asked Niall about whether or not they should go out and find the others – but Niall pointed out that it was impossible to know what direction they went to based on a sticky note. Harry suspected that Niall didn’t want to leave the town either, no matter how much he missed Zayn and the others.

It was the middle of October, Harry knew this because he’d made sure to keep track in his notebook, and the constant changes in the weather was causing them to get sick. Harry woke up one rainy morning to the familiar itch at the back of his throat and Niall was having severe coughing fits in the middle of the night that scared Harry half to death, prompting him to stay up for the rest of the night looking after him. Both of them had braved a trip to the mall on the other side of town and after fighting off hundreds of Zombies, they returned back to their sanctuary that was the second floor of the Rec Center with warm coats they’d taken from a department store. Niall’s cooking had become more and more sporadic that one night, Harry found himself eating spaghetti and meatballs. Where Niall had managed to get more spaghetti, let alone meatballs, was still a mystery to him. On one of his early morning trips to the grocery store, Harry had found some seeds and pots and he made himself a little garden over by one of the windows. Things were going good and they were happy.

The radio transmission, they discovered, was being broadcast by a cool female voice that refused to give up her location. Both boys didn’t know why she said this; they never wondered who it was and were simply grateful that they didn’t have to listen to themselves think all day.

“Aaaand that was _Viva La Vida_ by Coldplay, which ya’ll should be doing right now! Live ya life! Because I just saw some Zombies walk past the studio, shhh . . . “ she said one night. The radio went silent and Harry looked up from his notebook.

“Right, they’re gone! Don’t know how they found me – none of y’all have managed to do it. They’re attracted to noise; maybe they’ll like this next song, ha ha ha.” Said the girl and a funky beat came from the speakers.

“Haz, turn that up!” Niall yelled from the kitchen.

Night had fallen and Niall was, as usual, cooking dinner. Harry had offered on more than one occasion to make dinner, but Niall refused every time. At least Harry had the breakfast advantage on him, being the first one awake and all.

“Is this – is this Madonna?” he yelled again as Harry turned the volume up. Sure enough, Madonna’s _Vogue_ was blaring out of the speakers. “I LOVE THIS SONG HOLY SHIT”

He ran out of the kitchen and made the volume louder. Harry shushed him because, hello, Zombie’s could be around? But Niall shushed him back and grabbed him and forced him to dance.

“Niall! Niall, no, we have to be quiet, those – “ Harry protested.

“ _If the music’s pumping, it’ll give you new life!_ ”  Niall sang.

He and Harry danced in the middle of the room, doing something that closely resembled the chicken dance. Harry started cracking up and Niall lip-synced the rest of the song, twirling and waving his arms around, stopping when one of his coughing fits attacked him. He slumped against the wall, composing himself until they stopped.

“Right, back to the food! It should be ready in like 5 minutes!” Niall said and he was back in his forte.  

Harry went back to his cot, still laughing. Dinner that night was good as ever; Niall outdid himself with grilled cheese sandwiches that had just the right amount of grilling to the bread and the cheese and tasted like actual heaven.

\---

_30 th October _

  _Happy All Hallows-Eve!!!!! I really want candy and I’m half expecting little kids to turn up on our floor and ask for some. I didn’t see any at the grocery store but I’m pretty sure there’s some there and I think I’ll go check for some later. I’m kinda scared to leave this place after the mall attack but I guess it is good to branch out? I don’t know. Weather’s getting bad again. Hopefully we’ll be together by Thanksgiving. . . I ask for too much._

“Harry.”

Harry looked up from his notebook and closed it. Niall was standing a few feet away with such a shocked expression that Harry thought something had gone wrong.

“What happened?” asked Harry, terrified of the response.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” said Niall.

“T-tell you what?” Harry’s heart was pounding fast.

“My hair! I’ve just looked in the mirror, properly for the first time in forever, and I can’t believe this!” Niall said and he laughed. Harry let out a sigh of relief and stared at his friend: Niall’s blonde hair had gotten so long that he could now pull it up into a comfortable pony tail. There were several bruises on his arms and face and his facial hair was growing steadily.

“I mean with running around all the time I never had the time to, Niall. Christ, don’t scare me like that again!” He said. “Wait – what about me? Surely my hair and appearance has changed – hold on,” Harry said as he got up and walked to the bathroom.

His curly hair had turned into a tangled web that resembled a lion’s mane and had reached just past his shoulders. A yellowing bruise adorned his neck along with dried dirt and grime and his facial hair was nonexistent, as usual. 

“You didn’t tell me either!” Harry laughed as he walked out of the bathroom.

“Touché, Styles, Touché,” Niall said.

Harry wondered if it was too vain to ask if he smelled weird but it seemed that Niall was on the same page. Niall assured him that he didn’t smell bad and Harry told him he didn’t either. One thing was for sure, however, at the first sign of scissors they’d ask each other for a haircut.

“You know what I want? Candy. Candy is what I want,” Harry said after a while of listening to songs on the radio. “Sour Gummy Worms, Sour Patch Kids, oh my god, Reece’s Cups!”

“Haz,” Niall said as he turned over in his cot to look at him, “If you want to replace my cooking with candy, you could just say that.”

“WHAT? No – I – Halloween! And I was thinking we could get some medicine,” Harry stammered.

Niall burst out into laughter. “I was joking! You should have seen your face! I totally want candy too, I’m basically Aaron Carter. Let’s go?” He got up and put on his shoes.

“ _Aaron Carter?”_ asked Harry incredulously.

The day was sunny and there were few clouds in the sky and they made their way to the grocery store. They looked for good candy but all they could find was store brand gum that had fused together into a block of watermelon flavored nothingness. Harry suggested that the search expand elsewhere and they left the store. They went in the opposite direction of the town, past the grocery store and the Rec Center; this was unexplored territory and the shops here were less damaged than the ones where they had entered, and they spent the majority of the day exploring.

There was a pharmacy about 2 miles down from the Rec Center that looked like it was in pretty good condition. The parking lot was filled with abandoned cars and Harry pulled his trusty chair leg out from his bag. Harry and Niall looked into each of the dirty car windows only to find nothing, blood, or emaciated bodies. A thud and a snarling sound from inside a nearby car told them that a Zombie was in there; it posed no visible threat, however, so they just left it in the car.

The inside of the pharmacy was, if anything, worse than the Rec Center and the Dunkin Donuts combined. Shelves had been toppled over, their contents littering the floor; the cash register had been ripped off its place and violently smashed open; some of the floor tiles were missing and the entire Cosmetics aisle had been cleared out. Harry wondered if the candy was still worth it and decided it was, because hey, they hadn’t made it this far for nothing.

Niall moved forward but Harry threw his arm out in front of him. “Wait,” he whispered. Harry picked up some marbles that were on the floor and threw the pack into the store, where they landed with a clatter. He waited for something to come out of the sunlit aisles but nothing came. He breathed.

“Clear?” Niall asked.

“Clear!” Harry confirmed.

They walked deeper into the store, the dim sunlight lighting their way. Niall thought about the pharmacy from back home and how he had worked there the summer he met Zayn, wondering if they had the same layout. His memory led him and Harry toward the center aisle and it was right: the shelves in the center aisle had no damage to them at all; in fact, it was the only part of the store that didn’t look like it had been affected by the apocalypse.

Harry examined candy on the shelves. There were a few missing and a thick layer of dust that puffed up when he touched it had settled there.

“Haz, I don’t like this. This whole store is turned upside down and this one aisle is just fine? Did everyone just go ‘right, better avoid this one,’ when they ransacked everything?” said Niall, looking at a pack of Twizzlers suspiciously.

Harry had to admit he had a point. “But maybe they didn’t want candy?”

“I don’t know,” Niall paused to cough, “I trust that block of gum at the grocery store more than this.”

“Hmmm . . . I guess it’s like the creek. We can test them out or something? Cut this pack of Reece’s up?” Harry suggested.

”You’re telling me you want to dissect candy?”

“I HAVE A SWEET TOOTH!” yelled Harry, laughing as he did so. Niall broke into a laugh as well and he pulled out his knife.

“Okay, if you really want play mad scientist on that pack of Reece’s . . .” he said. Harry handed him the pack of Reece’s that he was holding and Niall examined the wrapper. “This . . . expired two months ago.”

Harry turned and looked at the other candy on the shelf and saw that almost all of them had expired back in August. He sighed deeply and looked at Niall.

“You look like Liam and his puppy dog face when you do that. Go find medicine and I’ll look for your precious non-expired candy,” said Niall.

“I’m craving sugar, to be honest. If I don’t get some I’ll turn into a gremlin.” Harry said as he walked away.

“You have the hair for it, Gremlin Styles!” Niall called at him.

Three aisles away he found the medicine and the contrast to the candy aisle was insane. Shelves had been emptied out and thrown on the floor and entire shelves were missing. Harry crouched down and picked up a couple of bottles of Advil and Tylenol and other anti-cold medicine. After putting them in his bag, he looked for band-aids and things they’d been lacking in the First Aid department. Honestly, why hadn’t they thought about the pharmacy sooner?

“Okay,” Niall said, appearing at the end of the aisle. “All of the _good_ candy that we want is expired and weird looking once you unwrap it. But. The other candy, all the hot then sour then whatever candy isn’t expired, but it’s still suspicious. I don’t trust anything that goes from hot to sour!”

“I’m going to look for the potato chips – hopefully those have better shelf life. We can have a chip Halloween,” he added and disappeared into the store.

Harry rummaged for cough syrup as he heard Niall have another coughing fit from somewhere that he assumed to be was the aisle that held the chips. Harry thought about the homemade chicken noodle soup that his mom would make him whenever he felt under the weather and struggled to remember the recipe. Tonight, he would tell Niall to relax and make them both some chicken soup. Maybe after plenty of cough syrup and anti-cold medicine, they’d wake up tomorrow morning feeling better than today. A clap of thunder brought him out of his thoughts and he listened to the rain fall outside, slow at first and gradually turning heavy.

“Niall?”

The pharmacy was getting darker, the dim lit from the outside fading away as a dark cloud floated over it. Harry called Niall’s name again and got no response. He hastily shoved whatever he was holding into his bag and ran out of the aisle. The silence scared him – had he really been lost in thought for that long? Had something happened? Harry didn’t remember hearing the coughs go away – was Niall simply hiding somewhere for a Halloween prank? He expected the boy to jump out at him with a mask at any moment now.

Harry pulled out his flashlight and it flickered when he turned it on. He pointed it down one, two, three aisles until he saw Niall’s body on the floor. His heart stopped for a fragment of a second and he ran forth, falling to his knees as he reached Niall. The flashlight fell and rolled away.

“ _Niall?”_ He whispered, looking up just in case anything was around. Well, if anything was around, they had probably already heard him with the amount of noise he made looking for his friend.

Harry put his ear close to Niall’s mouth and heard shallow breaths. With the little light from the flashlight, he saw his eyelids were open just a little bit.

“Niall? Are you alright?!” asked Harry urgently. He felt Niall’s hand twitch.

“Cough . . . couldn’t . . . breathe . . .” Niall said in a barely audible whisper. “Tried . . . to call . . . too much cough . . . ing . . .”

“Okay – okay can you get up? I got some cough syrup and – and – maybe some rest will help,” Harry panicked as he thought about Zombie’s that might be outside trying to make their way inside to get out of the rain. Did they think about these things?

Harry slowly picked Niall up and struggled to get him out of the pharmacy, Niall was dragging his feet so much that Harry had to stop every so often.

The rain was coming down real hard outside. Sheets of water made it difficult to see beyond the parking lot and lighting lit up the dark sky. Apparently they had been in the pharmacy all day because it looked like it was nighttime. Harry looked around, holding on to Niall who was pressing his full weight against Harry’s shoulder.

“How the hell are we going to get back?! We can’t stay here – no, we can’t. No. No. No. No. Okay – uh,” Harry thought out loud. He felt Niall start shuddering next to him and was attacked by another coughing fit, more severe than ever.

“Niall! Listen to me you have to breathe – stead – steady your breathing!” Harry struggled to look at him from the awkward position he was holding him in. Harry felt his blood pounding in his ears and his breathing quicken – _No._ He was not going to lose it now.

Niall stopped coughing and became heavier than he was before, causing Harry to lose his grip on him. Both of them fell over onto the wet concrete. By the looks of it, Niall had completely lost consciousness and Harry found himself blinking back tears as he tried to pick him up again. If it came down to it, and it certainly was, he decided that he would drag him through the rain back to the Rec Center.  It was the one place Harry **knew** was safe and he wasn’t about to start taking chances.

“Niall, can you hear me? Wake up – don’t do this to me – never – not now!” Harry said as he tried to maintain his balance. “Come on, you can do it, I know you can, please, come on,”

But it was no use. Harry, out of a fit of panic and frustration, slapped the hell out of him and still got no response. He cupped some water in his hands and threw it at him and still nothing.

 _“_ Plan B it is then,” he muttered to himself, and he hooked his arms under Niall’s armpits and picked him up, so he looked like some type of ragdoll. Harry moved backwards into the rain and almost dropped Niall when he realized how cold this water was. No, not cold, freezing.

Thunder clapped loudly as Harry made his way down the parking lot, panting heavily from dragging Niall, whose soaked clothes made him weigh even more. Harry’s flannel was soaked, his jeans were soaked, his rucksack was soaked, Niall’s whole being was soaked to the bone, and it felt like he was dragging a mountain as he finally made it onto the street. His arm muscles screamed from exhaustion, demanding a break, but he wasn’t going to let them. If he let go now, he knew that would be it.

Harry realized what a stupid idea this was. They could have stayed in the pharmacy, where it was _dry_ and there was _medicine_ and surely, somewhere in that hellhole was a microwave and a cup of noodles. He cursed himself and remembered it was two miles until the Rec Center and nearly gave up. Harry’s hair was so wet that it was stuck to his skin and he remembered that the only time it had truly been this wet was the one time he surprised Louis in the shower.

“Well, LOOK AT ME NOW, LOUIS!” He screamed over the thunder. “I’m here pulling our FRIEND to safety and you’re out there probably WARM and SAFE and FULL!”

Was this a psychotic break? Had he finally snapped? What was he even yelling about? As far as he knew, Louis was in a ditch somewhere.

“You’ve snapped, Styles. You have snapped!” He told himself, the tears rolling down his face mixing with the rain.  No, he thought, the one thing that really was about to snap was his back. It was aching and his spine felt weird and he knew he had no choice but to drop Niall and straighten it out.

“ _NO.”_ He ordered himself. “You will not do that, keep going!”

Honestly, he had no idea where he was. All he had to go on was the buildings he passed as he passed by with Niall, and none of them looked familiar. One or two of them did and – yes, he had seen this shoe store earlier. Okay, so he was on the right track. The Rec Center was close, he could feel its warmth and comfort calling to him. All of the coats would be used to warm up Niall, though. Harry would warm himself up with the candles he found at the grocery store.

The grocery store! His heart leaped with excitement as he found himself passing by it; the rain was coming down harder than ever but he was _there_ , almost there, nearly there.  He dragged Niall up the walkway that lead to the front steps of the Rec Center as fast as he could. His shoe came in contact with a soggy leaf and he slipped, letting go of Niall and landing hard on the wet concrete. _Well shit._ Was this it? He thought as he stared up at the black sky, the rain appearing in front of his vision just before it landed. They looked like clear streaks of something – weird.

This was definitely it. Death was coming for them, had probably already taken Niall. Niall! Harry groped around his thighs and found Niall’s hair, clinging on to it for dear life. He wouldn’t let them, the Zombie’s, take him. Where the Zombie’s even coming? He heard growling . . . a wave of exhaustion hit him and Harry felt ready to just fall asleep right here. He closed his eyes, ready to go to sleep and wake up the next morning with a bad case of pneumonia or something . . . when he heard shuffling and the sounds of something being dragged. Barely opening his eyes he saw Niall’s torso moving past him. Had he woken up? No . . . he would have said something . . . Niall was being dragged up the steps now, Harry saw and he flipped over onto his stomach.

His legs weren’t cooperating and neither were his arms; his hair pressed down on his face as he attempted to crawl after Niall.

 _“N-no,”_ he moaned. He reached out an arm and tried to grab Niall’s shoe, but it was too slippery.

His head hit the pavement and everything went black.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> or maybe it doesn't all work out, who knows


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sooo sorry! i've been sick for the past week and didn't have the motivation for anything besides throwing up my soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the timelines are still screwed up! but if it makes it easier, Niall and Harry are in present day and the others are like 1 or 2 days behind.
> 
> also, the one place i mentioned by name i had to google earth it for research

“This one’s clean too!” said Gemma for the umpteenth time.

Things in Cleveland were turning out pretty good. For one thing, there were no Zombies to take care of (which rendered suspicious, but whatever, deal with it later?) and they were glad. On the other hand, the weather was going from bad to worse; overcast and muggy with different variations of rain. It would go from soft rain to heavy rain in a matter of minutes and then just disappear completely. Zayn said he experienced something similar to this when he vacationed in Florida for one summer. The inconsistent rain called for nights that were below freezing, which was simply unnatural for it being the middle of October. Liam ran out of jackets and sweaters to give to the others and Gemma blamed global warming; the jackets and sweaters were no use, however, as they were still cold and one night they ended up  snuggling together for warmth in the middle of an abandoned Starbucks.

“You know, Lou, you’re going to have to buy me dinner if you wanna get closer,” Zayn said as Louis put his body closer to him. Gemma’s blanket barely covered all of them as they huddled for warmth.

“Does the dollar menu from McDonald’s sound good?” Louis asked, his voice muffled from underneath the blanket.

“It’s like you’re inside my head!” exclaimed Zayn. Liam laughed from somewhere on the other side of their sandwich.

The next morning found them looking like some kind of octopus. Zayn and Louis’ hands and legs were intertwined with each other _and_ Gemma’s; half of Gemma’s body was over Liam; and Liam found himself not even under the blanket at all.

“Good morning, then!” Liam croaked as Hailey the dog ran up to him and began licking his face.

“What in the world happened – I definitely don’t remember moving that much . . .” Gemma giggled.

“Well one of you kicked my spleen or something because ow, it hurts,” Louis said, getting up and stretching.

Gemma stared at the front counter. “I wish we could have some coffee. A latte would be so good right now; a good wake-me-up,” she sighed, gathering her things as they prepared to leave.

“I went to get breakfast with Harry one time, before school,” Liam said. “And the barista at the place gave us coffee and his was nice and warm. I thought mine would be too, and drank without thinking about it and burned the hell out of my tongue. I cried and everything. It made me sweat, too!”

Louis looked away, his mouth twitching. He made eye contact with Gemma and the both of them started laughing, hard.

“It’s not funny! My tongue was swollen for like two days! _And_ we were late that day. We got detention!” Liam said as his friends laughed.

“I remember that! You walked into AP Psych all red and stuff . . .” said Zayn, hitching his bag over his shoulder.

They left the Starbucks, sharing stories that had been told several hundred times at sleepovers and movie nights and late-dinners at the local Diner. Staying true to their word about not staying in a location for more than a day, they walked around Cleveland looking for somewhere to spend the night. The day was muggy as usual, but the plus side was that there was no sun to make them sweat and there was a nice breeze keeping them cool.

“. . . And that’s how I came real close to going bald,” Gemma finished. Liam and Louis stared at her in shock (Zayn was a little bit ahead playing with Hailey).

“Your life is so much more interesting than ours!” Liam said, shocked.

Gemma looked at him. “I just go with the flow, you know?”

“I have something that’ll one up you. Homecoming night, Haz and I decided to skip out on the after festivities. We ended up at the zoo and snuck in – don’t ask me how because I do not remember climbing a fence and no, we weren’t drinking!” Louis said as Liam opened his mouth to ask that very question. “So we’re there, minding our own business next to the lion cage when a security guard comes. We had to get out, didn’t we? No, Harry is over here thinking he’s James Bond and hides _in the garbage can._ I had no choice but to hide between the cage and a plant,”

“What’s going on?” Zayn asked as they caught up to him. Hailey wagged her tail and chased after some birds.

“Lou’s telling us a story, shh,” Gemma said.

“The guard is there, patrolling around, my heart is beating faster than anything. And at that moment, Harry sneezes. He. SNEEZED. It was game over at that point. He tipped the garbage can and we ran. Don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder and the guard didn’t even catch us.”

Louis finished the story and caught his breath.

“Yeah, but the one time I babysat . . .” began Liam.

They walked for a while, ultimately deciding to do something different and check out the suburbs for somewhere to stay. Walking down Payne Avenue (“Oh ha ha,” said Liam when Zayn pointed it out) until they reached a park. Their surroundings were the familiar sight of abandoned cars, long forgotten articles of clothing, shoes, and suitcases. There was a whole pile of dead Zombies underneath a large Oak tree. The houses, as they got closer, looked to be in good shape; broken windows here and there, but all in all still livable.

Melancholic feelings struck them as they inspected the houses. Each of them had something that reminded them that people had once lived here, people whose lives had been torn apart by the infection. There was a picture of a woman and her children smiling happily at an amusement park in one house; half-eaten fly infested food in another; a suitcase with clothes that never got to be packed. The sun began to set, streaking the sky with pink. Gemma spotted a two-story Victorian house that promised to be good shelter for the night, Hailey growled as they got nearer.

“Are some of them in there?” Liam asked the dog, who whimpered at the question.

“Do you think we should just lure them out and then just do it on the front porch?” suggested Zayn and everyone agreed.

Getting ready to clear the house, they all pulled out their respective weapons. Louis walked up to the screen door and knocked three times to the response of the gargling snarling noises from inside. He pushed his hair back and looked the other’s who gave him a thumbs up and he opened the door. Immediately, two Zombies came stumbling out and Louis shoved his knife into their heads – quickly – as two more came out. Liam ran up and sliced their throats as Zayn took care of the one sneaking up behind him. Gemma finished it off by breaking a Zombies neck as it followed the rest of its dead friends out the door.

“Let’s go inside, I feel like I’m being watched,” Gemma said, glancing back at the dark street.

The inside of the house yielded no type of damage and it was tame compared to the other environments they had been in and houses they had seen. The living room couches were overturned and the chandelier had somehow fallen to the floor, tiny pieces of glass everywhere. The curtains on the window had blood splattered all over them. The kitchen was surprisingly untouched except for a few spoons on the floor. There was a hum coming from behind the backdoor just off the kitchen and Liam diagnosed it as being a generator.

“I –I don’t think it would be good to turn on the lights . . . don’t want to draw attention to ourselves,” he said and everyone else nodded in agreement.

The moon was full and bright that night and they all agreed to sleep downstairs, as the upstairs was crowded with boxes full of pictures and clothes. Moonlight seeped in through the window, making everything a shade of blue and they sat around some candles that Louis found in the kitchen. Getting the shock of their lives when the radio that Zayn found in the upstairs bathroom actually worked when they plugged it into the wall (thanks to the generator) and a cool female voice was speaking.

“Right, they’re gone! Don’t know how they found me – none of y’all have managed to do it. They’re attracted to noise; maybe they’ll like this next song, ha ha ha.” She said.

Gemma looked at the radio and then up at the others as Madonna’s _Vogue_ came to them from the speakers.

“Niall loves this song,” whispered Zayn. Only Liam heard him and he put his arm around Zayn.

“This may sound stupid, but honestly, I thought we were the only people out here,” Louis said.

“Me too, actually. I mean, I was aware that there could be others out there, but now we _know_ that there are other people who survived this – this – thing out there. It gives me hope,” said Gemma. The boys nodded in agreement and Hailey licked her hand. The song ended and was followed by a song that Liam recognized as being by Vampire Weekend.

Thankful that they were indoors for the night and it wasn’t as cold, they blew out the candles and laid out over the couches and blankets that’d been found in some of the boxes. Louis closed his eyes and, as exhausted as he was, couldn’t go to sleep. Gemma’s comment about there still being people out there floated around his mind and his chest felt warm with hope as the thought that the possibility that Harry might have just survived the bus crash and was somewhere safe with Niall. Niall! Louis smiled as the blonde boy that he’d met on the first day of their freshman year of high school swam behind his eyelids. Niall was still alive as well. Maybe even his parents. Everyone’s parents! Louis opened his eyes as excitement coursed through this body – something was moving.

He followed Gemma into the kitchen and saw her standing by the window, the moonlight making her face look pale and ghostly. She looked at him sadly as he stood next to her.

“Couldn’t sleep?” asked Louis.

“We’re going to find them, Lou. Not today, not tomorrow. Soon. And then we can all be happy again,” Gemma said.

It began to rain, the drops on the window becoming silhouettes on their faces.

“It’s weird, because I never thought I’d be in this position,” he said.

“I – I don’t think anyone did!” Gemma said, with a laugh.

“And in a way I’m happy? Because I’m with you guys. Things get bad but I’ve been able to get through it because of you three. Like there’s no one else I’d rather spend the apocalypse with,” said Louis.

Gemma looked at him quizzically and playfully punched his arm. “You’re so silly. It’s the only thing Harold would talk about when you two first started dating and it drove me nuts! I tuned him out after a while, to be honest.”

Louis pulled her into a one armed hug and they stood there for a while, listening to the thunder that had started up.

“I miss him,” he said.

“Missing is an understatement.”

***

The rain continued throughout the night and well into the next morning, the group waking up to light Mumford and Sons playing on the radio, light rain, and cloudy skies. Gemma took Hailey out back so that the dog could relieve herself, going back inside quickly because she still had that feeling of being watched. Gemma watched Hailey sniff around the yard, waiting to see if the dog noticed anything, but nothing happened and she thought that maybe her intuition for detecting danger was just attributed to the Zombies.

“Can we g-g-get something to eat today?” yawned Louis, waking up as the others gathered their things.

“You know I forgot that you need to eat to survive? Literally, I forgot,” Liam said. “If only the stove in the kitchen worked, we could have some bacon for breakfast. . . ”

“Where exactly do you expect to find a pig in the middle of an apocalypse?” asked Zayn. “Do you mean at the store? Like bacon strips?”  

“Yes! I – I can’t kill a pig. The Zombies are a different story,” he said.

“I would hope so! It’d be like killing Babe,” said Gemma as she walked back into the room, Hailey at her heels.

Louis chuckled and Liam rolled his eyes, smirking as he hitched his bag over his shoulder.

“Oh good are we leaving? I hate it here,” Gemma said as she shoved everything into her bag, “that feeling of being watched hasn’t left me,”

They made their way out of the house, Louis glancing back inside it, his eyes falling on the radio. Maybe, if they were lucky enough, wherever they ended up at would have electricity or a generator, and they’d be able to use it again. With this thought, Louis doubled back and grabbed it, and put it in his bag. He walked out onto the front porch and closed the door with a snap. And he felt his breath catch in his chest.

Gemma, Liam, and Zayn were a couple of feet away, struggling in the arms of three heavily bearded men that closely resembled bears. A fourth man was standing in front of Louis, a rifle pointed directly at his chest.

“Obedient, your friends. Told ‘em not to say anything or we’d shoot,” the man’s voice was raspy and made the hairs on the back of Zayn’s head stand up. He pointed at the three men who also had various guns in their hands, “the dog listened too.” He nodded his head toward Hailey, who was sitting on the ground, shaking.

“Introductions are in order, then. Names Bob,” said Bob, “This here’s Chris, Sam, and David. We a part of the Poisoned Hippos,” Bob finished with a flourish of his embroidered vest that had a purple hippo giving a thumbs up. “Biker gang.”

Louis eyes were wide and he felt that this is what Gemma was talking about when she felt she was being watched.

“Quiet bunch? Big Dan will like this. What do you think, boys? Take ‘em to the warehouse?”

One of the men, David, grunted what sounded like a “yes” and Bob grinned. Louis saw several of his teeth missing.

“Form a line – no, not how you want. I want this one,” he grabbed Liam by the collar of his shirt and pushed him forward, “first. Then the girl, then the pretty boy, and then you. Do it or I’ll shoot.” He finished, clocking his gun.

“Ohho but I like this one!” Wheezed the man holding onto Zayn, but shoved him into the line behind Gemma.

“Been watching you all since last night – heard the girl say somethin’ bout being watched. Was right!” Bob said as they made their way down the street. Sam and Chris behind Louis, guns held at the ready, Bob and David leading in the front.

“Big Dan doesn’t take kindly to newcomers; remember what he did to that couple from Wisconsin?” David wheezed.

“Think he’ll give ‘em to the Infected and keep the girl? Or the pretty one,” whispered someone behind Louis.

“This is his part of town and ya’ll done made a biiiiig mistake comin’ here,” Bob said, laughing loudly.

Bob and his crew made them walk for a quarter of a mile before turning onto some unnamed road, leading up to a bunch of warehouses. Gemma looked around at the surrounding woods, knowing they would come in handy if they were able to get out of this. How? She didn’t know and her mind worked furiously trying to figure out a way. Louis, who was at the back of the line, was doing the same thing. If they could escape – no, when – no, if – they escaped, the plan was to run into the woods and get as far away from here as possible. He thought of a good spot to rendezvous in the event of getting split up and he thought of a good one, the problem was trying to pass it along to the others.

“Cleared all of the Infected within a two mile radius, it nearly took us two weeks to do it too!” Bob was saying.

“Didn’t you just stand there with a beer while the rest of us killed them?” asked David and Louis took his chance as Bob snapped with a response.

“Zayn,” he muttered, barely opening his lips, “Morgan is the rendezvous spot if you can escape. Pass it along.”

He saw Zayn nod his head and he passed it along to Gemma who passed it along to Liam. They stopped in front of a big warehouse with broken windows and entered it, Sam giving Louis an unnecessary shove in the back with his gun. The warehouse was full of broken glass and a very rusty staircase that creaked when Bob started climbing it. In the center were two people:  a man and a woman, bitten at the neck and chained to the floor, snarling at them.

“That’ll be one of you! Or all,” cackled David, “Chris, put that damned dog outside. Figure out what we’ll do to it later.”

Louis, Zayn, Liam, and Gemma were lead into a room at the top of the stairs. Bob made them take off their bags and he checked them all, one by one, removing anything they had to defend themselves with. Gemma’s heart was beating wildly in her chest and she didn’t see a single way out of this. They were trapped like mice and these people were hungry snakes.

“Should we rough ‘em a little bit?” Sam said.

“Big Dan wouldn’t like that . . . but . . . I ‘on’t care. I want one of my own,” Bob said, narrowing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let me think.”

“Don’t start without me!” yelled the man named Chris as he ran back into the room.

“You, girl,” Bob grabbed Gemma by her hair and shoved her into the center of the room, “stand there. Rest of you make sure these fools don’t try anything.”

Sam immediately made a grab for Louis, putting him in a chokehold. Chris did the same with Liam and David wheezed on over to Zayn.

“So . . . tense, pretty?”He breathed into his ear. His breath smelled like rotten limes and made Zayn feel queasy.

“None of you have said anything and I like that, but now I wanna hear ye talk,” Bob raised his rifle and pointed it at Gemma’s forehead. “Talk.”

“Please, _please,_ we didn’t do anything – we – we didn’t do anything!” Tears ran down her face and Bob cackled madly.

“DON’T HURT HER!” shrieked Louis, trying to get free from his captivators arms.

Bob swirled around to look at him. “You her boyfriend?” He walked over to Louis and prodded him with the rifle.

“No . . . no, not boyfriend . . . You look more of a . . . huh, who woulda thunk it . . .” Bob voiced out loud as he stared at him. “BANG!” He yelled suddenly and Gemma screamed.  Louis closed his eyes waiting for the bullet to enter his body and it never did.

He turned to look at her again. “If he ain’t your boyfriend, why you so scared?”

Zayn wanted nothing more than to melt into the floor as David wheezed in glee. Bob swaggered back over to Gemma and clocked his gun.

“Now, for the main event! I’m –“ but what exactly he was going to do, no one ever found out because at that moment, Liam broke free of the chokehold he was in and head-butted Chris. Blood flew everywhere and the man named Chris howled in pain.

“YOU DUCKER, THIS – BE BROKE MY NOSE!” He yelled. Liam punched him in the stomach once and went to do it again, but Chris twisted his arm to the point of almost breaking it and hit him over the head with a pistol. Liam fell to the ground, unconscious and Chris kicked him several times.

“Oh fuck _it,_ ” Bob yelled.

Louis knew what was going to happen a fraction of a second before it happened. Hoping for the best, he kicked wildly at made contact with Sam’s groin. Sam doubled over in pain, falling over as Louis tackled Bob before he pulled the trigger, knocking him off balance and sending the bullet straight into Chris’ skull.

David loosened his grip on Zayn at that exact moment and he took the opportunity to elbow him straight in the gut. David wheezed in pain and Zayn grabbed his head, kneed it, and shoved him to the ground.

“LIAM!” Gemma shrieked, running over to him and kneeling down. Louis was wrestling with Bob over the rifle, the weapon teetering dangerously in their hands.

“Zayn, go! Rendezvous spot!” He yelled.

“No! Are you crazy?! I – I can’t – Liam!” Zayn stammered, dancing on his feet. He could go and find help, but who would help him? What if the next person he saw was also a member of this motorcycle gang?

“ _GO!”_ shrieked Louis 

Zayn ran. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cliffhangers on cliffhangers, batman!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this chapter and I think it might just be my favorite. Also, I don't claim ownership to any of the songs mentioned but it'd be great if you guys listened to them to get a ~feel~ of whatever is going on.
> 
> also, the plot has made a complete 180 turn like wow

_“GO!”_ shrieked Louis.

Zayn grabbed his bag and ran out of the room, stopping before he reached the staircase and looking back, listening to the scuffle going on. He hesitated for a moment, debating on whether or not to go back.

If he left, he could find someone that could help. How he’d find this person, he didn’t know. As far as he knew, there wasn’t anyone else around except for the members of this Poisoned Hippo gang. And there was the possibility of returning to find that his friends had been killed.

If he went back, he could treat those men like Zombies and just take care of them. They’d be able to go off and rendezvous together and everything would be good again.

“ _David! Go get the other one!”_ he heard Bob yell.

Zayn realized he was hyperventilating and that drops of sweat were running down his face. He turned around, ready to run back into the room - when David came waltzing out of it.  The wheezing, overweight, bearded man grinned widely when he saw him and he brandished his gun, pointing it directly at his chest.

Zayn sprinted down the stairs, taking two at a time. He missed the last two bottom steps and he fell, face forward, onto a pile of glass and rusty nails. There was a loud _bang_ and he felt the bullet _whoosh_ past him, ricocheting off the wall and hitting something else. The staircase creaked as David began ascending the stairs after him, laughing manically. Zayn got up quickly, ignoring the burning on his face from the cuts that the glass had given him, reaching into his bag and finding whatever he could. His hand came in contact with something hard – a boot maybe – and he beamed it at David. The boot hit the man squarely in the jaw, causing him to lose his balance and slip down the rest of the stairs.

Zayn turned around and ran out the doors of the warehouse, when he heard another _bang_ and the bullet grazed his leg. He fell forward with a yelp, landing on his face again. He tasted something metallic in his mouth and knew that something on his face was broken or cut badly. David stumbled out of the doors, exposing his yellowing teeth in a smile as a shot rang out from somewhere above them. Zayn tried to get up as the heavy footsteps got closer, but the pain in his leg wouldn’t permit it. He flipped onto his back as the man got nearer.

“You woulda been nice as an Infected,” David said and another shot rang from inside the warehouse. Zayn tried to get up but dropped back to the ground miserably. The gun was pointed at him yet again and out of nowhere, with a booming bark, Hailey soared through the air and bit down on David’s neck. The man screamed as the dog growled and pulled him to the ground, her head thrashing around on his neck. She let go, her muzzle dripping with blood, and Zayn saw a pool of blood surrounding David, still wheezing as he took his last (wheeze) breaths.

Adrenaline coursing through his body, Zayn got up and motioned for the dog to come with him. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he turned and sprinted towards the woods behind the warehouses, tears falling down his face. There was yet another shot that rang out as he entered the woods.

***

He didn’t know how far he had run for or for how long, all he knew was that he was collapsing onto a pile of leaves and that there was a dog whimpering next to him. Zayn stared at the branches above him, his vision swimming before him. The pain in his leg overpowered his body and it throbbed; he felt his calf actually pulsating at one point.

Dying rays of sun came in through the branches and he knew it was setting. Hailey snuggled into him and they both lay there comfortable, listening to birds rustle around in the branches above and the crickets  come alive with their music. Exhaustion, pain, and hunger took over that night and he fell asleep much faster than usual.

Zayn opened his eyes to the pleasant view of the sky going from dark to a soft hue of blue and then purple as the sun started to rise. His left leg, the leg that the bullet had grazed, felt stiff and odd and he decided that he could no longer ignore the throbbing. He sat up to survey the damage, propping his back against a tree trunk. Hailey watched him as he extended his wounded leg. There was an opening in his pant leg where the bullet had passed by and he poked it gingerly, pain shooting up his leg and up his torso.

“I think it’s best if I took m’ pants off,” Zayn said out loud, voice still heavy with sleep. He removed his pants carefully, taking extra time on his injured leg. Hailey turned her head away when he finished taking them off and Zayn was thankful because he felt a little bit awkward at the current situation. He sat there in his underwear, staring at the wound.

Dried blood covered the entirety of the bottom of his left leg, making his leg hairs stick to his skin. The graze, it seemed, was not a graze at all, but an actual bullet wound. The bullet had entered his leg but had not exited since he didn’t see an exit wound.

Zayn giggled. “Look, Hailey! I’ve been shot,” he told the dog, who looked at him. “Like I never thought I’d get shot, but here we are!”

He looked closer at the wound and saw that part of the bullet was exposed. He poked it again and more pain shot through his body, making his head hurt. ‘ _Perfect. Amazing,’_ He thought sarcastically. Where was Gemma with her knowledge of Grey’s Anatomy? Sadness filled him as he thought about his friends and their whereabouts.

“Hails, you know what I have to do, right?” He asked the dog and she looked at him quizzically. “ _Hails._ What type of nickname is that? Sorry.”

“Anyway, I’m going to have to extract this bullet if we want to get moving!” Zayn said, reaching for his bag. “I may not watch Grey’s Anatomy but I know you have to apply pressure to the wound, so . . .” he pulled out a tank-top from his bag.

Putting the tank-top in his mouth, he reached over to the exposed part of the bullet. His thumb and index finger hovered over it. ‘ _You can do it. You. Can. Do. It.’_ He told himself.

“Fuck! I can’t. Nope. Yes.” He prepared to pull the bullet out, his fingers hovering over it again.

“No! Oh my God no, no.”

Hailey made some kind of noise and he took it as a gesture to stop being weak.

“Okay,” Zayn told the dog, “Okay. I’m going to do it. N-n-n-now!” He went for it without thinking and he pulled the bullet out like a splinter.

Pain shot through his body and Zayn shoved the tank-top back into his mouth and bit into it, screaming. Tears streamed from his eyes and he rested the back of his head against the tree. Carefully, he put his pants back on and tied the tank-top around the wound that had started bleeding heavily again. He got up, testing his wounded leg and it wobbled at the slightest pressure.

“Sitting around will only get us killed,” He told Hailey, who was watching him sternly. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. Come on,”

Zayn knew that dogs were far more intelligent than humans, but he had never thought about just how intelligent they were. This dog, the one he’d found cowering in the bathroom of the Rec Center, had become part of the crew and half the time he thought it was a matter of time before the dog started speaking English or morph into a human or something. Hailey the German Shepherd was a blessing in disguise and he was thankful that he had found her.

He took a step forward and nearly fell over - - his bad leg buckling under the pressure. He breathed heavily, steadying himself against a tree. ‘ _You could wait here for the others, you know,’_ said the voice inside his head. Zayn had thought about that, but what if he went back and the biker gang had returned? Or his friends had escaped and gone to the rendezvous spot?

Come to think of it, where exactly _was_ the rendezvous spot? Louis had said it was Morgan, yes, but where was Morgan? Zayn recalled spotting some birds in the sky, flying south for the winter, in V-formation. That was back in Morgan, so he could only guess that they’d traveled north? No. Yes? He refused to acknowledge the possibility that he was lost. He was in the woods now, which was good. They’d entered Ohio without knowing because they had entered through the woods, what if he re-traced his steps? But then that would mean going back . . . danger lurked there . . . no, it was best to keep moving forward and hope for the best.

Zayn spotted a large stick and bent over to pick it up. Examining it, he saw that it could be used as a walking stick and also as a weapon. He tested it on the ground, putting his weight on it. It wasn’t that sturdy, but at least he could walk.

“I’m Dumbledore, Hailey. No, wait; he didn’t have a walking stick. I’m just kidding, I’m Gandalf,” He told the dog, smiling as they set off.

“Wait . . .” Zayn paused and reached into his bag, pulling out a red flannel. He ripped the sleeve and tied it around a tree branch. “The others will see it and know that it’s the right track?”

They walked for most of the day, stopping every so often to rest and catch their breaths. The walking stick Zayn was using worked perfectly, it was just that his bad leg caused him to limp and use too much energy - - causing shortness of breath. “Short breaks, okay?” He told Hailey and she obliged, nudging him softly with her nose when she felt like it was time to keep moving. Whenever he felt like they had put a good amount of distance between trees, Zayn would rip another part of the red flannel and tie it to a tree. Claps of thunder startled them and the sky was gray, light rain falling through the branches. It was a peaceful day, if you thought about it. Nothing happened and the rain was therapeutic. Zayn talked to the dog, told her stories, and she listened. Sure, everyone else listened to his stories, but almost always had something to say. No one really sat there and actually listened to him talk.

Nightfall approached rapidly, the crickets coming back with the music. The rain had subsided, but the thunder and stormy clouds remained. Zayn wanted to keep walking all night, but felt bad when he saw how exhausted Hailey looked. He decided to walk a little further and settle down, when he noticed that they had arrived at a familiar looking lake. The moon peeked through the clouds illuminated the scene and he saw three Zombies sprawled out on the ground.

“We made it back to the lake! We’re on the right track, girl!” He hooted happily. Limping quickly, he spotted the pile of sticks they had complied in order to make the fish and Gemma’s discarded spear. Zayn plopped down next to the sticks and tried to light them with his lighter. It was no use, however, because the days rain had made them soggy and damp. The temperature was dropping rapidly and it was prudent for them to stay warm that night. Hailey brought him the spear, he broke it into pieces, and blowing hot breaths on it until the pieces looked dry. The lighter worked this time and warmth spread through their bodies.

The fire crackled merrily and an owl hooted from somewhere in the surrounding forest. Zayn emptied his bag out on the ground and looked at his belongings.

“I forgot I had a wallet! I’m surprised those creeps didn’t take it,” he said. He picked through pieces of clothes and objects until he found what he was looking for: Niall’s drawstring hoodie. It was a dark shade of blue and Zayn had “borrowed” it the night before the town was evacuated. The scent of leather bound books and nice cologne filled his nostrils as he sniffed it and he smiled because the smell was so comforting. Hailey tilted her head as he held the hoodie out for her and she sniffed it too.  He laughed.

“This, dearest Hailey, belongs to my . . . my boyfriend! I can never get used to saying that,” Zayn said, still smiling. “Did I tell you the story of how we met?”

The dog wagged her tail and he took that as a no.

“Okay, so . . .”

***~*~*~***

Zayn entered the pharmacy, his feet automatically taking him to the medicine aisle. His mother had asked for a certain type of medicine and he anxiously scanned the rows for the one she had specifically named. He found it – _Advil Extra Strength –_ and speed walked to the front counter. There was a little bit of a line that annoyed him a little; his mother’s migraine was the worst one yet and he wanted to get home quickly. He fiddled with some of the key chains on display as he neared the register and was struck by the aesthetics of a nice little purple one when someone said “Purple one’s my favorite. Next?”

Zayn looked up, startled, and he felt his stomach do a summersault and his heart flutter a little. The boy behind register was, there was no other way to put it, _adorable._ He had dirty blonde hair that swayed upwards as if there was a never ending wind tending to it, captivating blue eyes that looked like eternal bodies of water, little freckles all on his neck that made Zayn happy just to look at them, and the cutest ears that would put puppies to shame. Zayn glanced at the nametag and underneath the Walgreen’s logo was the name Niall.

“Migraines, huh?” Niall said as he scanned the Advil. “I feel like you wouldn’t have one if you weren’t wearing that oversized sweater, but that’s just a suggestion . . .”

“Wha – oh no – no – not for me – like – they’re for my mom,” Zayn stuttered over his words and he hated himself for it as he paid for the Advil.

“Hope she gets better! Have a nice night!” Niall said cheerfully, flashing him a dazzling smile and Zayn got out of there as fast as he could.

It was the middle of June and it was an unnaturally cool night and Zayn was taking full advantage of it: walking to the pharmacy instead of driving (in his defense he lived around the corner from it). But after that night, he avoided going there at all costs and did the most to avoid even passing by it. This boy, Niall, was too much for him to process.

The summer went by in a flash and August took its place, meaning it was Back-To-School season. Zayn was excited because now he could drive to school and he was a Junior in high school. He was no longer an underclassman and was ready to enjoy the freedom that came with this new title. One of his best-friends that he’d met the previous school year, Liam, texted him asking if he wanted to go supply shopping. Zayn shot back a _‘hell yeah!’_ and realized it sounded too peppy, but honestly, he loved going school supply shopping. It filled his soul with organization and he always took advantage of the deals on art supplies.

Liam picked him up a couple of minutes later and they drove to the Target across town. Everyone had the same idea as them, apparently, and had cleared out the whole store.

“I guess we’ll have to check out Walgreen’s,” said Liam, despite Zayn’s protests. Zayn hadn’t told him about the boy because what was the point? It was probably a onetime encounter but you could never be too careful.

They pulled into the parking lot and Zayn checked his outfit: red beat up Vans, a black v-neck, and cut off shorts. “ _Okay, this is weather appropriate_ ,” he thought. Why did he care so much?

Entering the store, Zayn avoided his gaze from the register but his peripheral vision let him know that the blonde head was nowhere near it. In fact, there was no one there at all.

The pharmacy proved to be more successful than Target and they filled their shopping baskets with notebooks, pencils, pens, color pencils, calculators, paper, folders, and all the regular things. The supplies aisle was in front of the front counter and Zayn checked every few seconds just to make sure, nearly having a heart attack when he glanced and Niall was standing there. His blonde hair was no longer dirty and just a regular blonde and the sway was gone. He looked more radiant than the night Zayn had first seen him.

“What has you so riled up?” Liam asked him, watching Zayn fidget with a seam on his shirt.

“Nothing!” Zayn said almost too fast and glanced back at the register again. Liam followed his gaze and his eyes landed on Niall. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Zayn.

“Hey, that’s Niall! I had him for Spanish last year. He’s real cool – I’ll call him over. YO N-“

Zayn put his hands over Liam’s mouth before he could call the boy and Liam started laughing.

“You pay, please? Pay! I’ll give you my debit card,” said Zayn, reaching into his pocket for his wallet.

“Zayn, what’s going on?” asked Liam, trying hard not to laugh again.

Zayn shoved the plastic card into Liam’s hand and walked quickly down to the opposite end of the aisle. Why did the register have to be right by the entrance of the pharmacy? This shouldn’t even be a big deal!!

He dropped his head and made a beeline toward the entrance, about to exit, when “Hey! How’s your mom doing?” came at him. Zayn stopped dead in his tracks and looked up, brown eyes meeting blue. Liam watched this unfold as he hid behind a display for horse shampoo.

“She – she’s good! Much better now,” Zayn said. His heart was beating rapidly and his mouth had gone dry.

“That’s good to hear. Well, gotta get back to work – money pays deese bills!” Niall said in a sing-song voice that made Zayn’s heart beat twice as fast. He turned to exit the store when Liam emerged from behind the display, yelling “Zayn, why’d you ask me to buy you flea remover? You don’t have a dog!”

Zayn ran back to Liam’s car.

He. Remembered. His. _Mom._

Who even does that? He bought the damn Advil like two months ago. How could someone even remember that? How?

Liam walked out of the pharmacy a few seconds later, a huge smile plastered on his face. He put the bags in the trunk of the car and unlocked the doors.

“You like him.” He stated as Zayn sat down in the passenger seat.

“I do not!” Zayn said.

“You basically sprinted out of the store, Zayn. I may not be gay but I know how it looks like when people like each other,” Liam said, driving out of the parking lot.

“I don’t,” Zayn said again. He didn’t. No. Maybe.

“You’ve been my best friend since we exited the womb, Zayno. Don’t insult my intelligence,” Liam chuckled.

“Since we were conceived, actually,” Zayn corrected him. They’d been the best of friends since middle school but it felt a lot longer than that. “And . . . I . . . fuck, fine. I like him. I don’t know why. Like, we’ve only spoken two sentences to each other.”

“He’s a real cool dude and absolutely hilarious. Harry and Louis know him! Were you under a rock last year or like?” Liam asked him, pulling into Zayn’s driveway.

“I spent the whole year in the Art room, remember? For that competition I didn’t even win.” Zayn said bitterly, getting out of the car and closing the door.

“Aaaah . . . Yes, it’s coming back to me. See you tomorrow!” Liam said as he backed out of the driveway. He rolled down the window. “Forgot to tell you, he’s gay too!”

Liam sped away before Zayn could respond, leaving him there to marinate in the news he had just received.

-

The night before the first day of school is always nerve wracking, even if you’ve been doing it for years now. Zayn felt silly because this should all be part of the routine now, but he still felt those nerves that are especially reserved for the first day of school. He spent the entire night tossing and turning, finally going to sleep ten minutes before the alarm on his phone went off. He slept through the alarm, waking up a half hour late at 6:30 AM and had to rush to get ready in order to get a good parking spot in the school parking lot.

Twenty minutes of brushing his teeth in the shower and running around looking for clothes and tidying his hair, Zayn pulled into the parking lot of the school at 6:55. Which was good because mostly everyone got there at around 7:15, five minutes before the bell; how the dealt with the anxiety of almost being late, he never knew.

Zayn turned off the car and made sure everything was okay with his parking. He was fairly new to this driving and was still a bit nervous. Everything seemed to be in order and he got out, pulling out his headphones. He had a tradition putting his phone’s music library on shuffle and whatever song played first was the song that would determine how that whole school year would turn out.

Freshman year was _Winter Song_ by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michelson, appropriate because that year was the most depressing year thanks to the boy that had fucked him over.

Sophomore year was _Fireworks_ by Katy Perry because things seemed to change for the better and he got to focus on his artwork and almost won a school wide art competition. 

He held his breath and pressed ‘shuffle’, on his phone and _Silly Boy_ by The Blue Van started playing. The happy, optimistic tune of the song made him feel good about the year and he walked into school, smiling.

First period was AP Psychology and good lord was that going to suck. Psychology? At 7:20 in the morning?  Climbing _three_ flights of stairs every other morning? The scheduling Gods were not on his side. Zayn sat in his seat at the back of the classroom trying not to fall asleep, content with the fact that at least he was next to a window that had good view of the forest surrounding the town. Neither Harry, Louis, or Liam were in this class and he felt odd just sitting there while everyone else socialized while they waited for the teacher. Zayn was pretty social but was also shy and never knew how to start a conversation - -once you became his friend and trusted you to come out of his shell, however, he was a chatterbox.

The final late bell rang and the door of the classroom banged open. A boy walked in, huffing and puffing, struggling to catch his breath.

“S-sorry m-missed the bus . . .! Had to catch a ride – well – but – I’m here now,” he stammered.

“Last name?” The teacher, Ms. Otero, asked him.

“Horan,” said the boy.

“Horan . . . yes,” she checked his name off on her attendance roster, “Take a seat then – where you can find one . . . okay, chapter 1 . . .”

Zayn flipped opened the AP Psych book to chapter 1 and saw that it was just an introductory chapter and went back to doodling in his sketchbook, when he felt someone take the seat next to him. He nonchalantly glanced at the person and nearly imploded in on himself.

 Niall. _Niall. NIALL HORAN._

The boy from the pharmacy was sitting next to him and had noticed the glanced. His eyes grew and a look of relief washed over his face.

“Zayno! Is it okay if I call you that? Liam told me your name yesterday. That was so funny, the flea thing! I’m glad you’re in this class; I hate not knowing anyone . . .”

 _Niall had given him a nickname!_ Zayn was more than okay with that.

August and September passed by in a flash and October was now upon them, bringing with it cold weather and the occasional rain. AP Psych quickly turned into the class Zayn looked forward to the most. He and Niall had made major progress in their friendship, moving from only talking in class to passing notes while the teacher lectured to having lunch together to texting when Zayn finally grew a pair (thanks to encouragement from Harry, Louis, Liam, and even Sophia) and gave Niall his number just “in case” he ever forgot the homework to talking on the phone right after school about how their day had gone even though they knew _exactly_ how it had gone since they texted each other during classes because sadly AP Psych was their only class together.

Fast forward to late November, Thanksgiving Break, more specifically Black Friday. Their friendship had grown so rapidly in such a short amount of time that both boys were having Thanksgiving Dinner at each other’s houses.  They started off at the Horan’s, where Zayn’s name had become a household name ever since Niall told his parents about him ever since that first encounter at work, to the Malik’s,  where Niall was always welcomed and once, Zayn’s mom had asked him if he to permanently stay in the guest bedroom because he slept over so much. They had decided to end the dinner at Zayn’s house because Niall had to work the Black Friday shift, and since the pharmacy was right around the corner, everything worked out.

“What time do you get off?” asked Zayn’s mom.

“Four! In the morning! Can you believe that? They have me working the entire shift alone,” Niall said.

“Oh – oh dear. Sweetie, if you need a ride home just call us,” she gestured to her and her husband, “or Zayn. We’ll be more than happy to take you home,”

Niall left and Zayn went back to his room to watch the annual re-run of _A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,_ falling asleep until his phone vibrated at half-past three.

**_From: Niall  
_ ** _\- I don’t have a ride can you please take me home?_

Zayn shot back a quick ‘On my way!’ and left the house, arriving at the pharmacy a few seconds later.

Niall got into the car and immediately Zayn registered that something was wrong. The fun, upbeat, positive boy that he had had dinner with just a couple of hours ago was now pale and sweaty and shaky.

“Hey, hey what happened?” Zayn asked.

Niall took a couple of breaths before answering, his hands on the dashboard of the car.

“It was too much, Zayno, too much. Too much people; too much _demands,”_ he said. “I did the breathing and – it didn’t work – it didn’t,” he began to hyperventilate. “I have panic attacks, didn’t I tell you?” He laughed, “You probably think I’m dumb now. I mean, really, who has an attack because too much people are on them at the same time?”

Zayn stared at him, half insulted that Niall would even fathom the thought that he’d think differently about him just because he had panic attacks. He got over it quickly and thought of ways to help Niall.

“I have an essay due Monday that I haven’t even started and I’m pretty sure I’m getting fired from here because I mess up too much and I’m taking my license test soon and I haven’t studied and my dad thinks I’m just lazy but really I’m too scared to drive and I like this boy, like really _like_ him and I don’t even know if he even likes me back and oh my god did I just say that? No, no, no!” Niall was spilling out everything he’d been keeping in and seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Zayn plugged in his phone into the car’s AUX port and scrolled through the library of songs.

“Sometimes,” he said calmly, “when I’m feeling anxious or panicky about things, I play music that’ll help me relax and feel better.”

Niall looked at him, scratching the back of his hand nervously. He pressed play on a song and a pleasing tune came through the speakers.

He looked at Niall, who looked back at him, his blue eyes swimming with tears.

“Is it okay if I put my hand on your shoulder?” Zayn asked and Niall nodded. “Okay. Let’s go to the backseat, it’d be uncomfortable up here,” and they clambered over the seats to the back seat of the car.

“W-w-what song is this?” Niall asked.

“ _Rocks and Daggers_ by Noah and the Whale,” Zayn said as he sat next to him and rested his hand on Niall’s shoulder. Niall was still breathing heavily and Zayn took his hand (after asking, of course) and traced on it with his fingers. After a while, he felt Niall’s breathing going back to normal and Niall told him every little detail of what he felt was wrong in his life. From the essay to the driving test to the neighbor’s dog that barked all night, he told Zayn everything. Everything except about the boy.

“Where you talking about the 7/11 breathing, Niall?” Zayn asked him after a moment silence.

“Yes –how do you - ?” Niall stuttered.

“I do it before every test. It calms me down. We can do it together, if you want . . .?”

Niall nodded and both of them breathed in, counting one, two, three, four, five, six, seven; breathing out, counting one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

They did this while the song played and by the end of it, both of them were calmer. Niall leaned into Zayn and he wrapped his arm around Niall’s body.

“Sing to me?” Niall asked, shifting his head to look at Zayn.

“What?” asked Zayn. He liked to sing but had never told anyone about it.

“You – you – I heard you sing in your sleep one time – I – does that sound creepy? It does,” Niall said, running over his words.

“No . . . it’s not creepy . . . hold on, I’ll look for one,” He reached for his phone and searched the library. _Rocks and Daggers_ faded away and another song began playing.

“ _Well this is just a simple song / To say what you done / I told you about all those fears / And away they did run / You sure must be strong . . .”_ Zayn sang. Niall listened to him, wondering if this is how angels sounded like.

“ _And you feel like an ocean / being warmed by the sun,”_

“ _Love’s such a delicate thing that we do, with nothing to prove / Which I never knew,”_

Zayn finished singing and Niall clapped for him. His heart raced happily because he had never sung anything in front of _anyone,_ ever. Not even for the boy back in freshman year.

“Zayn,” Niall said seriously, “I – I told you everything except for boy troubles, didn’t I? I’m sorry, I just don’t know, I just . . . don’t know, but I’m going to go out and say it and this is the exact feeling that you get before robbing a bank, probably. But. Zayn,”

“Nialler, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Zayn began, but Niall cut him off.

“I want to! The boy – ah, fuck it, the boy is you, Zayn, and I know I just ruined our friendship and it was wrong of me to assume that you like boys and I guess if you want to leave me in this parking lot, it’d be okay,”

Unknown to Niall, Zayn’s heart was now in a Conga line with the rest of his internal organs. Niall _liked_ him. _He liked him._ Zayn wracked his memory and realized he had never told Niall that he’s gay too – and Niall had told him that he was gay the very first day they had lunch together.

“Niall, I like you too. Like, like you. A lot. Ever since I bought my mom that Advil,” Zayn said.

***~*~*~***

“ . . . Our first kiss was that night, too.” Zayn finished telling Hailey the story. He looked around and noticed that the dog had fallen asleep. No wonder too, as the sun was starting to rise. 

“Did I really talk all night?”

Apparently, he did. Zayn laid down on the soft ground as the dog woke up and he patted and scratched her ears. She nipped his ear affectionately and licked his nose and he covered his face with the oversized sweater that he’d worn all those years ago.

A clap of thunder woke him up hours later. He opened his eyes to dark, swirling clouds, and lightening flashing through the sky. Hailey was next to him, nervous due to all the activity going on. He felt several drops of rain hit his face and he got up quickly.

“Right, time to move. Sorry for sleeping all day,” He told Hailey.

Zayn picked up the stick he’d been using for walking and stabbed it into the ground. Next, he took out the flannel and ripped another part of it and he tied it around the stick, so that it looked like some kind of flag. He grabbed Louis’ discarded spear and set off with Hailey into the woods that lead to the road that he knew would lead him back to Morgan.

The rain escalated as soon as he reached tree cover, an entire blanket of it covering his view of the lake. Heavy claps of thunder boomed through the sky and they moved as fast as Zayn’s leg would let them. It had gotten darker now and he struggled to see anything in the dark woods.

“Come on! We can do this! Town’s just over there; we can take cover in those buildings,”

They stumbled out onto the road and his stomach did a back-flip. Three Zombies stood there, sodden and weighed down by the rain and they snarled as they began to make their way toward him. Zayn pushed the hair out of his eyes, thinking of a way to kill them. He could use the spear, but what if he lost his balance? Those biker people had taken any method of defense and he needed something quickly.

Hailey was growling from somewhere behind him and the Zombie was too close for comfort and he winged it – swinging the spear like a baseball bat and hitting it in the head. It fell over and he pierced its head with the spear. He yanked it out, almost slipping thanks to the rain, and pierced the other two. He looked around to see where Hailey was and saw that there were more Zombies emerging from the trees behind them. Zayn dropped the spear, knowing full well that he’d never be able to kill this many on his own.

They ran into the town (or in Zayn’s case, limped) and looked for shelter. Every store had some ominous feeling to it and he didn’t care how wet he was, he wasn’t risking his or the dogs safety because of some water. There was a Dunkin Donuts that looked safe and didn’t give him that feeling and he limped into it, slipping when his foot slid over a shard of glass. For the third time in 48 hours, he fell face first into debris on the floor. How he hadn’t broken his nose or something was a miracle, or maybe he had and didn’t notice it due to being shot and all.

He crawled the rest of the way into the Dunkin Donuts and rested his back against an overturned table. Hailey sniffed around, presumably checking for Zombies, when her ears perked up like satellites and she sniffed the floor some more. Without warning, she growled and sprinted out of the Dunkin Donuts and into the storm.

Zayn sat there, in shock, wondering what the hell had just happened. Did the dog leave him? Had she gone to take care of the danger? No, she had never shown signs of actually attacking these things – just warning them that they were there.

He got up, holding onto the table, his leg protesting with pain. He lunged forward, nearly falling again, and grabbed the door frame. Zayn inched himself out into the rain and gripped the wall of the Dunkin Donuts and moved toward the corner. Thunder clapped and lighting ripped the sky in half and he peered around the corner. Hailey appeared through the waterfall of rain, stopping suddenly as if she hadn’t expected to see him there.

She barked loudly, jumping and motioning to him to follow her. Zayn tried the best he could, holding onto walls and lampposts and whatever he could find. He followed her down two streets and he spotted the familiar sight of the Rec Center.

“This is where you went?!” he yelled through the gale. “I know it’s bigger and more cover but I don’t think I can make it!” His leg was wobbling now and he felt lightheaded from the extraneous use he was putting it under. “Look, we can go back and come back tomorrow!”

Hailey barked and pushed him with her nose. It was only a ten feet walk, but it felt like forever. The dog ran ahead of him and up the front steps, disappearing into the building. He followed. Zayn pushed himself in through the front doors and found the nearest thing to hold on to – a chair.

He heard whimpering and noticed that Hailey was lying down next to two bodies. One of them he vaguely recognized because of all the hair on its face but he was sure it was a boy and the one next to him . . .

“Oh My God,” Zayn whispered and he forgot all about his leg. He limped forward, falling to the ground next to Niall. Zayn laughed and cried at the same time and he put his head on his chest, listening for a heartbeat. Niall’s heartbeat was there and his breathing was shallow but he was ALIVE.

“If this is Niall,” Zayn said, eyes going wide as he turned to the other body, “then that . . . “ He went around and pushed the wet hair out of the boys eyes face, and sure enough, it was Harry.

He was barely conscious and mumbling incoherently but it sounded like Niall’s name.

“How did you know?!” He asked Hailey. The dog put her nose to his bag. “The sweater? You – you caught the scent? Back – ahhhh, they must’ve been in the Dunkin Donuts.”

Hailey put her paws over her eyes and made a sad little noise that made him smile.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so that Ziall back story was probably unnecessary. Originally, it was going to be 1 paragraph but i got carried away haha
> 
> and the song that Zayn sang for Niall is "Simple Song" by The Shins


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I apologize for the wait! Sorry!

_“GO!”_  

Louis watched Zayn grab his bag and run out the door before turning back to Bob, wrestling for the rifle that was in-between them both. Gemma was kneeling down next to an unconscious Liam, hysterically asking him to wake up. Sam was in the process of getting up again and had his sight trained on her like a ravenous lion.

“David, go get the other one!” Bob yelled as Louis came close to disarming him. David ran out of the room. They continued wrestling, Louis kicking whatever parts of the man that he could. A gunshot echoed through the warehouse and he broke his gaze away, heart pounding fast. If Zayn was hurt – if he was dead – it would be his fault.  Taking advantage of the momentary weakness, Bob smashed the rifle into Louis’s nose; he felt blood begin to pour down his face and tasted it in his mouth. Louis was shoved against the wall and the man began to punch him repeatedly in the stomach.

“Liam, wake up, come on, don’t do this to me,” Gemma whispered in Liam’s ear. The boy had been knocked out pretty well, but at least he was breathing and starting to regain consciousness. “Don’t do this to us, come on, please,”

There was the sound of a shoe scraping against the floor behind her and she looked a second too late – the other man’s shoe made contact with her chin. She was thrown backward into the wall, all bodily functions ceasing to exist.

A second shot from somewhere outside of the room and Louis panicked some more, shoving his body against Bob’s and throwing him backward.

Gemma slumped over in pain, eyes closed, ready to receive another blow when another gunshot, this time, from within their room, brought her back to her senses. She opened her eyes and narrowly dodged another kick in the face, getting up quickly, stumbling over Liam’s body. She glanced over and saw Louis and Bob still struggling. Apparently, the rifle had gone off accidentally. The man named Sam moved gingerly and Gemma used this to her advantage: she lunged, grabbing him by the hair and pinning him against the wall, hands behind his back.

“Obviously,” she growled, “No one” – she tilted his head back – “Ever taught you”- she smashed it against the wall – “Not to” – she continued hitting it against the wall – “Hit women!” and his head hit the wall, breaking open and splattering blood everywhere. Breathing heavily, Gemma turned around and saw that Louis was starting to overpower Bob and she ran, jumping on his back and wrapping her hands around his neck.

Bob let go of the rifle, letting it fall to the floor where it went off again with a loud bang and the bullet narrowly missed Louis’ temple. Bob, realizing that Gemma was on his back and wasn’t planning on letting go, rammed his back into the wall. Gemma let go with a yelp and he turned around to face Louis, murder in his eyes. Louis bent down and picked up the rifle and aimed it.

Liam, unknown to any of them, had regained consciousness and got up at the exact moment that Bob pulled out another gun from the waistband of his jeans, pointing it at Louis; Liam tackled him as he was pulling the trigger, knocking him down. Bob threw Liam off of him, pinning him down to the floor and he began to beat him with the pistol. Louis raised the rifle, unaware that his shoulder had been shot and without hesitation, without thinking it twice, shot Bob in the head. The man fell over Liam’s body and Louis was quick to push him off. He fell to his knees and examined his friend’s bloody face as Gemma crawled over.

“You’ve been shot, Lou,” she panted when she reached him, resting against the wall. She was sporting a bloody lip, a black eye, and a nice purple bruise on her chin where the shoe had kicked her.

“Have I?” Louis asked. In all honesty, with everything that was happening he barely had time to register the amount of pain his body was in, let alone a gunshot wound. He looked at his right shoulder and saw it pooling with blood.

“Well, shit, I have! But Liam. . .”

“You have to put pressure on it, Louis,” addressed Gemma, taking off her cardigan. “Here,” she tore the sleeve off and wrapped it around the wound. “Good thing is that it came out on the other side!”

She looked at Liam. “Oh, _Liam . . .”_

There was a small gash on his cheek and just above his left eye. His right eye was starting to swell up (as was the rest of his face) and a steady flow of blood was coming out of his nose. Gemma checked around his head for any gashes or anything threatening and exhaled in relief when nothing was found. He had regained some consciousness and was barely breathing.

“Pistol-whipped,” Louis whispered. “Alright, we need to get out of here before Big Dan or whoever comes back. Is he good to be picked up?”

“Yeah – yeah I think so. Help.”

They hoisted up Liam by the armpits and they started to walk toward the stairs when the unmistakable rumble of a motorcycle broke the silence. The sound was getting closer and it seemed that there was more than one, because the rumble turned into a roar. Without warning, Gemma let go of her grip on Liam and Louis nearly fell over with him.

“Do you have a plan?!” asked Louis, adjusting his hold on Liam.

“No, oh my shit, no I don’t. What are we going to do? If those people come in here and see what we did – shit, they’ll have our heads!” Gemma said, panic filling her like water. “That’s the only way out! We can’t sneak out the window or anything because we’re up on the second floor of this thing and we won’t make the fall without dying or breaking a bone, so,”

“And we aren’t fast enough with Liam here,” added Louis. Gemma walked over and cupped Liam’s face in her hands.

“Liam. Liam, can you wake up? Please, we need you, wake up, come on,” she begged. The sound of the motorcycles got even closer, as if they were already outside the warehouse. “Leeeyum, please!”

“Hold him for a second,” Louis said and walked back into the room where they’d been taken hostage. He grabbed their bags and picked up the rifle and the pistol. “Give them hell, I guess?” he said, walking out of the room.

“No. Let’s not stoop down to their level,” Gemma nodded to the bikers, “We’ll shoot if we have to, okay?”

“That’s why I said ‘I guess’! Come on, down the stairs and maybe we’ll find a backdoor,” Louis said and with that, they carefully made their way down the creaky metal stairs and reached the bottom. The chained Zombies in the center of the room snarled and Gemma and Louis looked at each other at the same time with identical grins.

“Please tell me you’re thinking what I’m thinking?” She said, snickering.

Louis arched an eyebrow. “Let them loose and see what happens?”

“Yes!”

Carefully putting Liam on the ground, they walked over to the Zombies. One of them was a middle aged man and the other was his wife, judging by the wedding ring on her gray, gnarled finger. The Zombies clawed at them and they stayed just out of reach.

The motorcycles stopped just outside the doors and the engines died. Louis and Gemma froze on the spot as a gruff, deep voice yelled something they couldn’t understand. Louis knew they wouldn’t have time to release the Zombies and pulled Gemma out of sight and under the stairs. He barely had time to drag Liam under the stairs when the door banged open and there stood the silhouette of a tall man whom they could only guess was Big Dan. He climbed the stairs, two at a time and Gemma noticed his boots had snakes on the bottom of it. His footsteps were heavy and he left behind a strong scent of liquor. Three other men, all with the same smell, followed him up the stairs and into the room. Louis saw this as their one and only chance and Gemma helped him drag the still unconscious Liam out the doors. They heard a loud yell just as they passed the body of the man named David, who was surrounded by a pool of his own blood.

“Where do we go?” asked Gemma in a hushed voice.

“I don’t know, I don’t know – uh,” Louis scanned their surroundings. Seven warehouses that they could hide in and four motorcycles were available. Though, how they could get on the bikes and leave without making noise was another story.

There was another yell and more heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and Louis and Gemma ran, stumbled, and limped at the same time, barely making it into the warehouse across from theirs when Big Dan and his crew burst out of the doors.

“Whoever did this,” they heard him sneer, “is still around. That blood’s fresh, boys. On’y way they could’ve gone is back to town, so that’s where we’re goin’.” And the motorcycle engines revved up again and they were gone.

“Are they really that stupid?” blurted out Gemma.

“Just be thankful that they are,” said Louis, resting against the wall. “And we’re equally as stupid if we stay here.” He added.

“Back to the house? No, just kidding. The way there is too out in the open. The forest? We could catch up with Zayn if he hasn’t made it too far?” suggested Gemma. “I’m feeling a bit dehydrated too.”

Louis agreed and they picked up Liam again, cautiously making their way out of the warehouse and to the forest behind the one they came from. The sun had reached its high point and it beamed down upon them as they struggled through the trees, tripping over exposed roots. Beads of sweat ran down their faces and Louis wondered where the cool weather had gone to. Now, when they actually wanted it, it was gone. Liam mumbled something they couldn’t understand and they took it as a good sign that he was regaining consciousness.

The heat calmed down by nightfall, replaced by a cool wind that soothed their wounds and bruises; the rushing water of the river they had made camp next to calmed their minds down. Gemma and Liam, who had come back to his senses for a while, had fallen asleep together and Louis was left awake, his mind buzzing with the events that had happened.

Had he really taken a human life? Like, it was for the right reasons and self defense, but he, Louis, had never thought about what this would feel like. He felt _dirty._ Ashamed. Weird. It was for the protection of his best-friend. This . . . this person had had a family at one point but what would push them to the brink of hurting another person like that?

Louis closed his eyes and the bullet flying into Bob’s skull – Liam’s body underneath him – Gemma’s yelp as she hit the wall – played out like a movie behind his eyelids and his eyes snapped open. Sleep was out of the question tonight.

The stars twinkled and shined brightly as he lay on the ground staring up at them. The sight brought back memories of the time he had accidentally told Harry he loved him. It’s not like he wasn’t planning on doing it, but that night on Harry’s rooftop was different. The night was silent and still and the stars were there and it was such a corny moment but it fit perfectly. They had been talking about a movie or a song or something and it kinda just . . . slipped out.

“Yeah, her backup vocals were insane, and did you hear her at the Grammy’s?” Harry asked him. Louis shifted his head to look at the curly-haired boy.

_“I love you._ To the moon and back. No, not to the moon and back, that’s such a short distance. To the end of the galaxy and back and there’s no end to the foreseeable galaxy, so you’re pretty much screwed, Harold, because my love knows no boundaries and it’s a lot I have to give. I never thought I’d love someone this much and it really scares me and –“

And that was it. Harry stared at him for a while and Louis thought he was going to break up with him and Harry said it back and they kissed and it felt like fireworks were going off in Louis’ stomach.

An owl hooted from somewhere in the woods and it brought Louis back from his reprieve. Slightly annoyed at the owl, he closed his eyes, ignoring the flashes of death and guns and went to sleep.

\--

Gemma woke up the next morning and was startled to see that Liam was no longer next to her. She sat up quickly, looking around wildly and spotted him over by the river, splashing water on his face. Louis was sleeping a few yards away. She got up and made her way over.

“Morning!”

“Hey there! How’d you sleep?” Liam asked, turning around to face her. The swelling in his face had gone down overnight and his black eye dominated the scene. The gash had already started to swell over and most of the blood from his nose had been washed off with the water.

“It was actually pretty relaxing, honestly,” Gemma replied, “I’ve always loved camping. Nature just makes me feel so . . . at peace.”

“Right?” Liam said. “Like nothing can bother you out here. Well, now something can because Zombies could come out of the trees right now but. . .” He reached down and picked up his bag. “So what happened back there? All I remember is being hit in the head and then waking up and tackling that man and then waking up here.”

Gemma told him and Liam swore loudly.

“Glad we have some fight in us! I just wish I hadn’t been knocked out. I could’ve helped and we could’ve gotten out much faster,” Liam remarked.

“I’m pretty sure you saved both our lives with tackling him! I was on the floor trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t do anything,” Gemma chuckled.

Liam smirked. “Yeah?” He put his bag down, finding what he needed and proceeded to take off his shirt.

For months of starving and running around, his physique was . . . there was no other way to put it, pretty. His chest was defined and toned; a large bruise covering most of it and a small tuft of chest hair was in the center of it. He was lean, skinny, but still well rounded. His biceps bulged as he scooped up some more water and poured it over himself and Gemma followed the water as it fell down his body.  

“Yeah,” she responded.

An overwhelming desire to wrap herself around him and cling on to him was threatening to overpower her and Gemma distracted herself by focusing on the water. A mental image of her and Liam frolicking in the water flew through her mind and she averted her gaze.

Liam was getting closer, or the earth had shifted and everyone was three inches closer to each other, and Gemma was able to count every eyelash on his eyes . . . she was closing her eyes . . .  Louis coughed.

Gemma pulled away, flustered, and glad for the interruption. Liam’s cheeks flushed and he went back to washing himself as Louis got up.

“Good morning! Hello!” Louis said cheerfully. “A bit hot, isn’t it?”  He asked, looking at the both of them. “Or it might just be Liam; I see you’re doing better today. Put on your shirt, you’re putting all of us to shame!”

“He can make his own workout video if we get out of this alive,” Gemma chimed in.

“No! During,” Louis said, laughing. “Call it ‘Payne’s Zombie Workout: Results in 3 Months or Your Money Back!’ Yes, sounds good.”

Liam clapped his hands. “Okay, and one and two and three, four, five, and six!”

The morning was full of laughter and jokes and Gemma was glad that an awkward moment was averted. She scolded herself for even thinking about trying something. This was Harry’s best-friend, after all. Or maybe he wouldn’t see anything wrong and would want Liam in the family? He was pretty much a part of it already and Louis wasn’t that far away from being her brother-in-law, and Gemma Payne did have a nice ring to it . . . Gemma laughed out loud and the other two boys stared at her. In the end, she resolved to keep her distance and to maintain the friendship that her and Liam currently have.

The river was shallow and they were able to cross it with ease and the journey through the forest continued. The day was beautiful for the most part, not too hot and not too chilly, but around the middle of the day it began to rain. The motivation and sense of direction that had filled them while the sun was out was replaced with doubt and uncertainty as the rain got heavier and they stopped under a large tree to avoid getting wet. Louis refused to admit it, but, they were lost.

Tree cover came to abrupt end and they found themselves on the side of a highway. It was a car graveyard: there were cars for as far as the eye could see. A large chunk of stone had crushed one car completely so they only saw the wheels poking out from under it and that’s when they saw that the highway overpass had somehow crumbled and collapsed.

“Did we go the right way?” asked Liam, looking into one of the dusty car windows.

“I don’t think so,” Louis said as he looked around. “All these people . . . all these cars. Where do you think they are now?”

“Alive and well, hopefully,” Gemma replied.

“How did that overpass come down? It just looks like a clean snap,” Liam walked forward to inspect the wreckage.

“There’s nothing really . . . too much weight on it?” Louis speculated, following him.

Gemma stayed behind to explore the car graveyard, looking into every dusty car window for anything that could be useful; a map or a compass or something. She looked into a two-door car and a face appeared suddenly from within the car, pressing up against the window, snarling and snapping. She squealed, turning around and seeing two Zombies come stumbling out of the forest on the other side of the highway. More of them followed and two became four which became an entire group.

“Guys!” She shouted, “Company!”

Even more Zombies came out of the trees and the group became an entire hoard. Snarling and growling sounds filled the air and the sky rumbled with more thunder. More were appearing from behind cars and bursting out of them (several from an overturned truck) and they advanced on Gemma, Louis, and Liam.

“What do we do? We – we –we can’t take on all of them!” stammered Louis.

“What else can we do?” shouted Gemma over the noise.

“Get the hell away of course!” yelled Liam and they turned around, running at breakneck speed, back to the side of the forest they came from.

Was it because there was so many of them or were these things getting faster? Every time Louis glanced back, the Zombies were nearer than they were the previous time. He jumped over the railing, following Liam and Gemma as they ran back into the forest; he tripped over a root and Liam doubled back to help him up.

“No! No, come on, get up, you can do it!” Louis begged when Liam tripped and refused to get up. They had reached the river again and Liam was sprawled out on the ground, breathing hard. Gemma was the same and Louis egged them both, his adrenalin coursing through his veins.

“This – this can be the first workout! Up! Both of you! We don’t know if they followed us or how fast they’re coming, please, get up!”

“Louis.” Gemma panted, “Louis. Water.” Her throat was really dry and she was positive that the Sahara desert was within her body.

“Water! Yes, awesome, hold on,” Louis said wildly and he reached into his bag, pulling out two cups. He filled one for Gemma and one for Liam and they drank.

A snarling noise announced the arrival of a Zombie and Louis did the first thing that popped his head as it got nearer and punched it in the face. It fell back and Gemma and Liam regained their strength and they set off at a run again.

“We can’t go that way! It leads to the warehouses!” shouted Gemma as they pushed branches out of the way.

They skidded to a halt.  

“Where do we go? Not back to the warehouses or the house – those biker people are there, yeah?” Liam said. “The forest is big, we can lose those things!”

And Gemma threw herself against a tree. She slid down it, shirt snagging onto the bark and she sat the bottom of the trunk, burying her face in her hands and started screaming. It was muffled and she stopped, breathing heavily.

“I’m so _tired,_ ” she sobbed, tears running down her face. “I’m so tired of running around and doing things I wouldn’t ever do. In the last twenty-four hours we’ve killed two people and I just want this all to end, I want everything to be normal again! I want to find my brother and Zayn and Niall and just be normal. Why does everything get so complicated?”

Liam sat down next to her and offered her his shoulder and she put her head on it. “I’m so sorry I’m holding us back. I’ll be okay in a second.”

Louis kneeled down in front of her. “Gem, listen to me: You aren’t holding us back. Don’t. We’ve all done things in the last few months that we aren’t proud of and we all have a breaking point . . . yours just happened to be now! It’s all right!”

She inhaled deeply and exhaled.

“Okay. I’m good. Cool, calm, I’m good,” she said, getting up. “Comfortable shoulder, Liam,” she added, winking.  “Damn, that breakdown ruined my bad bitch image.”

Louis chuckled. “So, which way?”

“If we go straight, we walk straight into the bikers. If we go back, we walk straight into the Zombies, if they managed to get this far. Left or right?” Liam said.

“Hmmm. . . Left seems good.” Gemma concluded.

“To the left it is! Only until nightfall though, I wouldn’t want to run into a Zombie in pitch darkness.”

They were able to walk for quite a distance until visibility became limited and they made camp in a small clearing. Exhaustion overpowered them and they fell asleep as soon as they lay down on the ground. Louis woke up to a soft drizzle of rain on his face and the sun’s rays peeking through the tree branches. He got up, preparing to rouse the others when he spotted something tied around a tree branch that made his heart beat happily.

“Liam, Liam! Louis said urgently, shaking him awake.

“What? Who? What’s happening?” He shot up quickly, eyes wide.

“Look! The tree! Gemma, wake up!”

Liam looked at the tree and saw the sleeve of a familiar red flannel tied around the branch.

“That’s . . .” He began and Louis interjected with “Zayn’s!”

“He’s okay!” Gemma said happily. “And I bet you anything that he’s tied these around other trees as direction markers.”

“He’s hurt though,” Louis said as he bent down to examine some blood on the ground. “But not hurt enough, otherwise he wouldn’t be leaving these behind.”

“I wanted to keep sleeping and take the day off but this is much more exciting,” Liam said and with that, he hitched his bag around his shoulder and set off at a steady pace. Louis and Gemma chortled and followed suit.

Zayn had placed pieces of his flannel every couple of trees or so, and they followed with their eyes peeled for the next one, a new found motivation being given to them from each one they found. The rain proved to be an inconvenience, as they had to stop every so often until the heavy down pour stopped. A dark, massive cloud was on the horizon and the wind was starting to pick up and by nightfall, the rain had gotten so bad that they could barely see and they stopped to find cover. Thunder clapped and the wind roared and lightening lit up the sky like camera flashes and all three of them were wetter than they had ever been. The ground became muddy and slippery; Gemma’s sneakers getting sucked in multiple times. They huddled under a tree that offered very little cover and just hoped that the storm would blow itself out. The surrounding trees creaked and birds cawed and lightning landed so closely to them that they feared that they’d get struck.

The worry on their minds the next morning when the storm was over was the fact that Zayn’s flannel pieces might have been blown off course because of the strong winds and they set off again, looking for red strips of clothing.

“No, no, I think we went too far off course,” spoke up Liam when they ended up at a swamp with a pungent odor.

And so they doubled back, tempers running thin because the humidity was at an all time high.

“When, do you think, was the last time you had a good shower?” asked Gemma when the silence got to be too much for her.

Louis gasped. “Are you insinuating that I smell bad?!”

“I think she is,” Liam chuckled.

“No! Neither of you smell! Like I’m wondering if the last time we had the time to shower was before the town got evacuated. For all I know, I could smell like a dumpster and you guys aren’t telling me . . .” Gemma replied.

“Ahhh, what I’d give to have a nice bubble bath with a bath bomb,” Louis said. They passed the tree where they had spent the night and going down a small hill.

“Zayn gave me one of those for my birthday once and it turned my bath water all sorts of colors. It was wild,” said Liam.

“Speaking of Zayn, I think that’s one of the indicators over there!” cried out Gemma and sure enough, a red piece of clothing was swaying in the wind just ahead of them.

“So he’s going straight?” speculated Liam.

“Something he isn’t,” Louis whispered and Gemma slapped his arm.

“ _Louis_!”

“Sorry! Sorry! Slip of the tongue I didn’t mean it!” Louis apologized as Liam howled with laughter.

They followed two pieces and by the time they found the third, it was pitch black in the forest. The moonlight giving them very little light source to go on and they were forced to make camp for the night, no matter how much motivation they had to keep going. Liam was still giggling over Louis’ comment from earlier and the night was filled with random bouts of laughter until tears came to his eyes and his abs hurt.

“How far have we even gone?”

That was the question on everyone’s mind the next morning when the journey began again. Several more flannel pieces appeared in front of them and it was as if the next day was in fast forward: one second it was morning with a beautiful sunrise, the next it was sunset with the promise of more rain; night arrived, bringing with it freezing winds. The woods seemed to be never ending; trees everywhere and it gave Louis a feeling of claustrophobia. He felt small in this maze of foliage and was jealous of the flying creatures that could escape the trap. He hoped that they were getting nearer to wherever it was that Zayn was leading them to and a horrible thought crossed his mind: What if flannel wasn’t his? Dozens of people have red flannels and what if the ones they were following were just . . . someone else’s?

Louis repressed the thought and they continued on the next morning, again walking all day until finally, at sundown, they arrived at the lake that they had spent the day at once and had an elaborate meal of fish. Gemma squealed and ran forward, spotting another piece of flannel on a stick, buried in the ground like a flag. Louis immediately let go of the thought that they were following the wrong flannels.

“This is the lake! And the road that goes back to Morgan is just over there, I’m positive!” Gemma yelled happily.

They flat-out ran toward the other end of the lake and entered the small stretch of trees before arriving at the road. A spear that Louis recognized as his was lying on the side of the road next to a couple of Zombies and the kill looked recent.

“Where do you think Zayn is?” asked Liam as they ran into town and stopped by some shops.

“The Rec Center, maybe? That’s where we stayed and the one place that’s safe here,” Louis said. “I never did tell him where to go, but I’m pretty sure he’d go there.”

The three of them set off, looking for the Rec Center until they found it. It was dark now and the moon was bright enough to light their way. Gemma mentioned that Zayn would probably be up on the second floor again and they entered the building radiating with excitement. They climbed the stairs, two at a time and burst into the room, utterly disappointed when no one was there.

“He’s not here but someone has been here, though,” said Liam.

Two cots had been set up in the middle of the room along with an overturned chair that was being used as a bedside table. A couple of plates and cups lay littered around along with some lit candles; some pots with growing plants had been placed under the windowsill and one of them had fallen and cracked; paper plates and cups and wrappers lay strewn around the floor and three bags lay next to the cots.

“I think people live here,” Louis said and they split up to explore the place. He walked over to one of the cots and moved things around. A notebook lay atop the pillow of the one he was nearest to and curiosity took over and he picked it up and opened it at random.

_15 October,_

_Last night Niall had the worse coughing fit and I truly thought he was going to stop breathing. I was ready to do CPR – anything, really. I’m scared and if it gets worse I guess we’ll have to look for medicine. Nothing interesting has happened and I have to admit that I’m getting pretty tired of being holed up here. The radio is fine and a good distraction but I’m bored._

Louis dropped the notebook and began shaking. This was _Harry’s._

“G-Gemma! Liam! Come here for a second?” He called out and that’s when someone gasped behind him. Louis turned around fast, expecting to be attacked, and he froze.

In the doorway, eyes wide with disbelief, stood Harry Styles.

“Lou,” he whispered.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reunions... they are coming. One more and we'll see how everything turns out!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god okay i'm so so so sorry for the wait! Finals week dragged me into a pit of studying and coffee and i had no time for anything besides my books, but now it's over and i can freely do whatever i want haha.

Harry’s eyes snapped open. The sunlight streaming through the window temporarily blinded him and the birds singing disoriented him… the last thing he remembered was passing out in the rain. How, and when, did the ground become so comfortable? He raised his upper body, using his elbows as support, and saw that he was laying on a cot. Two blankets had been carefully placed over the bottom half of his body and his clothes had been changed; he was now wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. His other clothes lay on the ground, carefully folded. He turned his head to the other side and saw Niall, lying in the same position as him. His clothes had been changed as well and two blankets had also been placed on him, these, however, covered his whole body. Harry’s brows furrowed. Had he blacked out after everything that had happened? He turned his head back around and (finally) noticed the sleeping boy sitting in a lawn chair a little ways away from him and Niall.

Harry fell sideways off the cot from shock and got up, hardly daring to believe it. His eyes watered and his breath got caught in his chest and excitement bubbled up inside him. Zayn’s hair was longer than Harry had ever seen it and he looked positively exhausted and beat up. His clothes had tears all over them and there was a nasty, blood soaked tied around his left leg. A brown German Shepherd lay on the ground next to him.

Harry walked around the cot and toward Zayn, not breaking his gaze away. If this was really a dream, he wanted it to last as long as possible. Harry slowly reached out and poked his shoulder.

“Zayn?” He whispered, poking him again. Zayn shrugged and mumbled something in his sleep and Harry poked him yet again, finally giving up and shoving him as hard as he could. Zayn snorted and opened his eyes slowly, smiling when Harry swam before him.

“Hey there,” Zayn said, voice full of sleep.

Harry opened and closed his mouth several times before hitting Zayn’s shoulder.

“ _Where_ have you _been?_ ” Harry inquired. “You – have you been – _Louis –_ where? – What about Gemma? Liam? Parents?!”

Zayn got up off the lawn chair and pulled Harry into a bone crushing bear hug that squeezed the life out of him. They separated and Zayn gave him a sad look.

Harry gasped. “ _No?”_

“It’s a long story,” Zayn said.

“I’m ready for it,” Harry said hurriedly and Zayn plunged into the tale from the beginning. From watching their bus crash to the biker gang, Zayn told him everything that had happened in excruciating detail. He told him about how their driver lost his mind and how they didn’t know the status of their parents and about Sophia’s turning into one of the Zombies and Hailey came to be with them.

By the end of it, Harry felt bad, kind of. What he and Niall had been through was tame compared to what the others had went through. He hugged Zayn again, thankful that he was alive.

“Okay, so we’re going to go find them, right?” Harry asked as soon as he let go. Zayn was taken aback by this comment and waited a couple of minutes before asking him what he meant.

“Go and find them, Zayn! We have to go!” Harry said.

“We – we can’t. Louis told me – us – that the rendezvous spot was here, in this town. What if we leave and they come? What if you go and run into those people?” Zayn told him.

“But we have to! They could use our help or . . . or . . . I don’t know, but we have to go, Zayn!” Harry got up and started gathering his things. “Listen, I’ll get a head start and as soon as Niall wakes up, you guys can follow me and –“

“Haz, stop it. I’m more than positive that everyone made it out; by the looks of it, there was one hell of a fight going on,” Zayn sat back down on the lawn chair and looked at his friend.

“And how come you didn’t go back and help?” snapped Harry.

“Because I told you: Louis told everyone that whoever managed to escape to meet back here!” Zayn said, his voice rising.

Harry moved so fast that Zayn thought he was going to hit him.  Instead, Harry walked over to the window. He turned to face Zayn, leaning on the ledge and crossing his arms.

“You don’t know how it feels,” Harry said lowly and Zayn arched an eyebrow. Harry realized what he said a second too late and went to apologize, but Zayn was already talking.

“I don’t know how it feels? _I don’t know it feels?_ Have the both of us not been running around for _months_ now, not knowing if anyone was alive? Have the both of us not looked death in the face? Half starving and living off nothing but water and berries? I spent the entire time out there wondering about _the both of you._ At one point I came close to shutting down and accepting the fact my fucking boyfriend and best-friend were probably _dead_ but I remained strong for the others because we needed the support. ‘You don’t know how it feels’?  So please, Harry, try me,” Zayn finished with venom in his voice.

“No, no – I didn’t mean it like that – I meant – actually, I don’t know what I meant, but,” stammered Harry.

What Harry felt was happy and angry at the same exact time. He was happy because Zayn was there, alive and well. Beat up and exhausted, but he was there and nothing would make Niall happier. Angry because, well, who wouldn’t be? How could Zayn expect him _not_ to leave the safety of the Rec Center when he had told him that his sister and Louis and Liam were out there in some kind of trouble? Or even worse: dead? Harry stared at him and saw just how serious he was.

“Look, I’m sorry. I really am, Zayn. I’m being selfish – I didn’t mean it like that,” Harry apologized.

“I know, I’d say the same thing if the situation was reversed,” Zayn said.

“But I’m letting you know now that if they haven’t appeared in a couple of days, then I’m leaving. I don’t care if go alone or with Niall or with you, but I’m going and there’s no stopping it,” Harry said seriously. “Deal?”

Zayn nodded. “Deal.”

“They’re okay, right? Everyone?” Harry asked, scared about the answer he might receive.

“All of them are spectacular, Haz. I highly doubt any of us would be alive if Gemma wasn’t there. Liam’s okay and Louis is okay too. Stop worrying, it won’t do you any good,” Zayn said and Harry felt his spirits lifting when Zayn told him about how much of a badass his sister had become.

“So, tell me what’s been going on with you guys!” exclaimed Zayn. It was Harry’s turn to tell Zayn about the events that had happened after the bus crash and Zayn gasped and told him to stop at all the right moments.

“ . . . And yeah, last thing I remember was falling outside and that’s it,” finished Harry. “How . . . how long have we been out?”

“Two days. I stayed up through most of it, but as you saw, I fell asleep. And I’m positive you guys aren’t sick anymore because both of you sweated as if you were in a sauna and I gave you both medicine,” Zayn pointed out.

Harry had to stop himself from crying. He had forgotten just how great his friends were and he felt a rush of gratitude toward Zayn. He did feel much better and his body wasn’t as exhausted as it was before.

“Speaking of medicine, is your leg okay?” Harry asked, kneeling down to check on it.

“Yeah, actually. The antibiotics you got from the pharmacy – sorry, I read your notebook, that’s how I’ve been keeping up with the days – are really helping,” Zayn informed him.  

“Good, good…” Harry trailed off and looked past Zayn to the sleeping Niall behind him. He walked forward.

“Haz, no! Don’t wake him; you know how he hates that! Plus it’ll be a nice little surprise when he wakes up,” said Zayn as Harry made to poke Niall. Hailey had made her way under Niall’s cot and was snoozing peacefully.

“Agh! Alright, I’ll just show you around then. Come on.” Zayn limped over and Harry gave him the grand tour.

“Over here is the kitchen where Niall makes works of art – I don’t know how but he does and I stopped questioning him a long time ago,” announced Harry, pointing into the kitchen. “Here is the bathroom where we think about taking a nice shower but can’t because there is no water,” He gestured into the bathroom. “Down there are amenities we don’t use because they probably don’t work aaaaaaand,” Harry ran the length of the room over to the overturned chair that was used as a bedside table, “this is the radio! It’s come in handy and I’d like to personally thank whoever runs the station!”

Harry switched it on, surprised that the batteries still worked. A pop song that had a really catchy tune was playing and he turned the volume up and sang loudly. Niall twitched at the noise and Hailey woke up.

“You’re waking him up, Harry! Stop!” laughed Zayn. The dog barked loudly as Harry pulled Zayn into a waltz like dance and the both of them sang loudly without a care in the world.

“What’s all the effin’ noise, Harold?” rasped Niall from his cot. “I’m way too comfortable to deal with you right now.”

“Wake up, sir, you’ve slept long enough. And there’s a surprise here that you might miss, so,” Harry tried sounding as serious as he could. Zayn opened his mouth to say something but Harry clapped his hand over it.

“But I want to keep sleeeeping,” whined Niall, shifting his body so that he was facing away from them.

“Alright, I guess you’re gonna miss it . . .” Zayn burst out, pushing Harry’s hand away from his mouth.

Niall rolled over immediately, eyes wide. He looked at Zayn, and then at Harry, and then at Zayn again, and his mouth fell open. Harry nodded when Niall looked at him again, his eyes begging Harry to tell him it wasn’t a dream. Zayn had a lopsided grin on his face and Niall screamed, shoving the blankets off of him and springing off the cot and into Zayn’s welcoming arms. Niall felt drunk and happy and sleepy and happy and full of life; he felt more alive than ever. He stared into the brown eyes of his boyfriend, because, yes, this was his _boyfriend_ and he was alive and here with _him._ His stomach was alive with butterflies and fireworks and his body felt tingly and electric; he felt like he could take on the world and its stupid Zombies and everything that came with them. This was in no way a dream and the realization hit him when Zayn pinched him and he didn’t wake up. A wet, sloppy kiss that could have lasted a thousand years for all they knew ensued and it still wasn’t enough. Niall pulled away but no – this was real and there had to be more and they spent the better part of five minutes like that.

“Oh my god,” Niall whimpered, still clinging on to every bit of Zayn that he could. Harry looked away and bent down to pet Hailey.

“I can’t believe you’re here! I missed you so, so, so, so, much,” Niall breathed into Zayn’s ear and kissed his neck. Niall pulled him into a bone crushing hug and let go, advancing on Harry.

“Hey! HEY! Why are you hugging me?!” Harry said, gasping for air.

“Because you’re here too! And so is Zayn!” Niall chuckled. He looked around. “And Liam? What about Lou, is he here too? Gemma?”

Harry and Zayn’s faces fell sadly and Niall looked at Harry with the uttermost look of concern on his face.

“They’re comin’, Hazza. I feel it in my bones,” he said. “Breakfast is on me today, so don’t worry about it!” And with that, Niall ran off into the kitchen.

“Breakfast?” Zayn asked.

“It’s not even worth asking, honestly. He’ll probably come back with French toast or something,” Harry joked.

**

The three of them sat underneath the window, enjoying the cool breeze and sunlight. Niall had somehow managed to make another one of his grilled cheese sandwiches but returned with somber news: the stoves had finally run out of gas. Harry chuckled and told him he’d find a way to keep doing whatever he did in the kitchen and Zayn praised him for the deliciousness of the sandwich. Zayn told Niall the story of what happened to them and Harry listened to every word, his heart skipping a beat every time Zayn mentioned Louis.

Harry thought about Sophia and just how lucky he was to have made it this far. He had never really talked to Sophia enough to form an actual friendship with her, but still, the news made him feel bad. He thought about Liam and how he was coping with the loss of his girlfriend (Zayn hadn’t mentioned that) and he felt a shiver go down his spine when the thought of potentially losing Louis… or even worse, Gemma. Harry didn’t know just how he’d react to the death of someone he loved and wasn’t keen to know anytime soon.

This lead to the question of how exactly had he, Harry, survived this mess? He knew Niall was just fine throughout all of this because he had lead the middle school soccer team to district champions during the three years he was there and Louis had taken a kick-boxing course one summer. Zayn did yoga, which Harry was sure mellowed him out but gave him a lot of energy at the same time, and Gemma was a regular at the gym. The most Harry had ever done was go on Saturday morning runs with Liam and even then he didn’t do much besides make Liam laugh and then persuade him to have breakfast at Starbucks. They had, however, gotten into pretty good shape because of these regular runs and that was just another good thing about Liam living across the street from him. All in all, Harry felt that he was just as good as the others and that this moment of weakness was just nothing but worry and he resoled to stop worrying it. Because, as Zayn had said, it would do him no good.

The pleasant weather from the day had transformed into its regular dreary, cold self, and the boys found themselves with chattering teeth. The coats Harry and Niall had salvaged from the mall had been soaked and ruined thanks to the storm and the only thing they had for cover were blankets that really offered no cover at all.

“Haz, you know you’re more than welcome to bunk with us, if you want,” Niall told him when he looked over and saw a sad looking Harry, lying in his cot.

“What?” Harry asked. He’d been listening to the radio trying to decipher what song was playing and Niall had interrupted his train of thought.

“You look sad! Come over here, we’ll make room!” Niall said, nearly pushing Zayn off the cot to make room.

Harry giggled. “I’m fine! I was just listening to this song but I think I’ve lost it…”

“Are you positive? There’s more than enough room over here,” Zayn piped up, his voice strained from holding himself up off the side of the cot.

“ _Yes_ , I’m positive,” Harry told them.

“Are you absolutely positively extra sure?” Niall asked him again.

“Niall I’m going to smother you in your sleep.”

Niall gave him a resigned sigh. “If you say so, Harold.”

Truthfully, Niall didn’t want Harry to feel left out of anything. He felt it was wrong that he got to be with Zayn again while Harry was just left there to think about the whereabouts of Louis. Niall felt a bit annoyed with himself for flaunting his happiness all day and was annoyed with himself for feeling annoyed at himself because why shouldn’t be happy? Harry would want him to be happy, even if he wasn’t showing it now. He didn’t really enjoy this whole situation – there’d been quite a bit of tension throughout the day but he knew that if it was reversed, if it was Louis and Harry, it’d be the same thing, so...

Zayn’s arm wrapped around Niall and he felt warmth spread through his body. The cuddling he had dreamt about for the past several months was actually real now and he moved his body into Zayn’s, so that it was a perfect spoon. Niall was thankful that their heads were facing the same direction because a tear ran down the side of his face and he felt embarrassed for crying at this moment. Sleep came easy that night, despite the strange noises coming from the outside.

**

Harry woke up at the usual time the next morning (sunrise) and got up to stretch. His muscles still ached from two days of not being used and, well, now he was putting them to use. He watched Niall and Zayn sleep as he folded his blankets, smiling broadly. He felt ashamed of himself for being annoyed at his friend’s happiness the day before; Zayn’s arrival meant change and change meant difference and Niall was right, the others were coming.

Harry suddenly snatched up his bag, consequently waking Hailey up, and rummaged through it. He found the scissors he had taken from the pharmacy and he ran to the bathroom, Hailey at his heels.

The dog watched him curiously as he stood in front of the dirty bathroom mirror cutting off his hair. Every _snip_ made him feel like the tension and problems of the last three months were leaving him and were replaced with newfound hope. Also, Harry felt significantly cleaner because his lion’s mane was returning to back to a manageable size.

“Crap,” he said, looking at Hailey from the mirror, “I’m pretty sure it’s uneven.  But. I feel nice and clean!” She licked his arm affectionately.

“You need to go outside, don’t you? Yeah, we all need to relieve ourselves in the morning. Hold on, let me just” – he snipped two more strands of hair – “there,” Harry beamed at himself.

They exited out of the bathroom together.

“Right, so, do you have a leash or what’s the dealio?” Harry asked the dog as they passed the sleeping figures of Zayn and Niall on their way to the staircase. Hailey merely looked at him quizzically and they went down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the front doors.

Harry kept his distance as he walked behind Hailey, giving her privacy to do her business. A soft breeze was blowing and it made the hairs on his arm stand on end and he hugged himself for warmth. He heard a crunch and realized he was standing on leaves that had fallen off the surrounding trees and that could only mean one thing: Fall had arrived, which would bring even more chilly nights. They definitely had to plan another excursion to the mall for more coats and blankets. A soft nudge brought Harry back from his reprieve and he took this as Hailey’s sign that she was done and together they went back up to the second floor.

Niall and Zayn were still sleeping and Hailey seemed to be on the same road, so Harry focused his attention on the radio, which had stopped making any type of noise. He turned the volume up to its highest level and was greeted with silence; his stomach sinking as he thought about the possibility that something bad had happened to the radio woman.

Harry held the radio up to his ear, hoping that some sort of sound would come out of it and suddenly, a blast of noise and he dropped the thing in shock. He forgot that he had the volume up on its highest level and now a loud, heavy drum solo filled the room, waking Zayn, Niall, and Hailey up.

“What a nice wake up call, thank you Haz,” Zayn giggled when Harry turned the volume down.

“S-sorry! It was silent and I thought something had happened to her!” Harry stuttered.

Niall rubbed the sleep from his eyes.  “She’s talking, turn it up!”

Harry hastened to turn the volume up again and the cool voice was speaking.

“I deeply apologize for the overnight silence, had to quiet down the place for a while. Some idiots thought it would be nice to have me turn into one of the undead, can you believe that? No worries now, folks, I took care of them,” She laughed heartily. “Enough of that, back to the music. Think you guys would like something slower now?  Yeah, definitely, my ratings thing shows that there are five of you listening. Used to be six but I don’t know what happened to them and I hope they’re okay. Anyway, thank you everyone for listening and survivin’ in this time of trouble and worry, this one’s for you!”

A nice tune started playing from the radio and Zayn recognized the song as _White Collar Whiskey_ by Emily Wolfe.

“Honestly, I didn’t know how dependent I became on the radio until just now,” Harry sighed.

“I know what you mean!” piped up Niall for the first time since he had woken up. “It’s like, there’s someone else here with us… who happens to have good music taste?”

“Exactly!” agreed Harry. “What, Zayn?” he asked when he noticed the brown eyed boy eyeing him suspiciously.

“Did you cut your hair, Haz?”

“Oh, yeah, this morning! I decided it was time for a change . . . and also I felt really dirty,” Harry explained.

“You look good and have inspired me to get one as well!” Niall said happily, hopping off the cot. “You could use one too, Zayno,” he addressed Zayn.

Harry laughed. “Okay, let me just get the scissors and then the Styles’ Barber Shop will officially open,” he said as he walked to the bathroom.

“So what do you think? Should I go bald?” Niall asked Zayn.

“ _Bald?”_  yelped Zayn.

“What’s this about being bald?” Harry asked as he returned.

“Niall wants to go bald!” Zayn exclaimed and Harry doubled over in laughter.

“I was j-joking!” Niall said, clutching a stitch in his stomach from laughing so hard. “But, I mean, it wouldn’t be such a strange thing – I’d get to air out my scalp!”

“I think I need a different piece of equipment for that, Niall. So, for now, we’ll stick with just a trim,” Harry giggled.

“Make me Vogue worthy, Harold,” Niall told him and Harry went to work on his hair, not really knowing what he was doing. Harry hoped that with each _snip_ Niall would feel the same relief that he had felt earlier that morning, and, judging by the delighted look on his face.

The breeze from the morning had picked up and was blowing through the windows, making them all shiver. Harry had finished with Niall’s hair by now and was starting on Zayn’s; Niall was ecstatic over his now shorter hair and Zayn was eager to get his cut as well. At one point, Harry thought that Hailey was lining up for a haircut as well, but it turned out that she was just stretching.

“Done!” Harry said with a final _snip_ of Zayn’s hair.

Zayn stood up and softly patted the top of his head. “How does it look?” he asked, turning to face Niall.

Niall, who had been rolling around on the floor with the dog, looked up.

“Like a thousand bucks! You did such a good job on us, Haz, thank you!” Niall beamed.

Harry chuckled. “My barber shop is going to be a huge success!”

The wind got stronger and colder as the day wore on and by mid-afternoon, it felt like their skin was being sliced open every time it blew in through the window. Zayn’s main concern was how they were going to get through the night. If it was this harsh during the day, he couldn’t even imagine how it would be at night; the previous night had been chilly and very uncomfortable with the limited warmth he had. The other option, as Harry had suggested, was to take a trip to the mall and find something to keep them warm during the night and during the day, and Zayn was happy to oblige to the adventure. All three of them set off, sweater clad and annoyed at how cold it had gotten in just a few hours, in the direction of the mall.

Harry and Niall knew the route there by memory and it didn’t take too long to get there. The mall was an ominous six story building right at the edge of town and it grew bigger as the boys and Hailey got nearer. It was damaged, like most of the buildings around, and infested with the Zombies too, but Niall and Harry had cleared the first floor of the mall completely; there wasn’t a doubt in their minds, however, that the other floors held more of them.

“ _Woah,”_ Zayn gasped, taking a step back when they entered the mall. He assumed that it would just be some nasty looking wasteland with very little light to go on, but was taken by complete surprise. The ceiling, he saw, was a huge dome that had been made entirely of glass that had been shattered, rays of sunlight streaming in through the broken and unbroken shards. A fair amount of moss and vines adorned the floor and the walls and some weeds were sprouting up through the floor. How? He didn’t know. Plenty of debris and clothing littered the floor; birds rustled around from their various perches and one thing was for sure: Mother Nature was taking back what was hers.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Harry asked him. “It took us by surprise too.”

“It’s… beautiful, in a way,” Zayn whispered, taking in more of the spectacle.

The three boys and Hailey stood there for a while, admiring the morbid beauty of the mall. It was one of those serene moments that you experience during those times of deep trouble – but you don’t want it to end, ever, and that’s how Harry felt. He closed his eyes and felt everything that was troubling him leave his body and only when Niall suggested that they look for what they needed before it got dark was when he came back to earth with a nasty bump.

“Did you guys really clear all of those Zombies? Hailey usually has her way of knowing if any of them are around and she hasn’t done the warning sign or anything,” Zayn asked.

“The brunt of it all was down here, I think, so I think we’re good…” Niall speculated. “But just to be sure,” he picked up a metal hanger on the ground and threw it a little ways ahead, where it landed and made a loud clanging sound. Nothing happened.

“Guess we did,” chuckled Harry. “No, but, we didn’t go up to the other floors, remember? We just found the first available store and that was it.”

“True, true,” Niall said. “I wonder if that sale at Old Navy is still valid,” he added as an afterthought. Zayn hit him on the shoulder.

“Where should we go? I’m pretty sure we cleaned out that coat store,” Harry said.

“I guess we could just scout down here and then work our way up? We have time and two extra people, Hailey and I, for protection,” Zayn suggested.

Harry and Niall agreed and they made their way around the first floor of the mall. The sun’s rays reached even the farthest corner of the stores they went into, so they had no trouble seeing anything. The TJ Maxx they went into first was overrun with bugs that buzzed loudly and were not worth the trip into it, as they didn’t find any blankets or sweaters. The next store they tried had the same outcome (minus the bugs) and so did several other stores.

“Upstairs?” Zayn asked when they exited yet another store with just one blanket and a jacket. The chilly winds had gone but the cold remained and the sun was beginning to go down at this point, making everything shadowy and more ominous than they seemed.

Harry, Niall, Zayn, and Hailey went up the stairs to the second floor of the mall and discovered that this floor was mainly the food court, with some kiosks devoted to selling cell-phones placed around. They walked around the food stands, peering in sadly at the rotten food that had been left behind. The third floor proved to be more successful, with the Banana Republic they trekked into providing them with warm, comfortable cardigans. This floor yielded more stores that gave them even more goods, like sweatshirts and blankets (Niall even found a thermal blanket in some home goods store). Hailey had started growling nervously as they neared the end of the hall, but the boys thought none of it, as nothing that posed an immediate threat appeared.

“Seriously good haul! I don’t think our bags will be able to fit anymore, to be honest,” spoke Harry.

“Tonight will be warm – we’ll be hungry, but warm and toasty like roasted marshmallows,” Niall said.

Harry laughed and Zayn opened his mouth to say something, but looked like they would have some good stuff in them, but they turned a corner and nearly stumbled into a dozen or so bodies on the floor. The bodies littered the floor, some on top of the other, and blood was everywhere. There were sporadic bloody handprints on the walls and store windows and two knives were left abandoned some yards away and a very foul odor dominated the scene.

Zayn looked at Harry and Niall, eyes asking for an explanation.

 “This wasn’t us, I assure you,” Niall said, staring at the bodies.

 

“This looks really, really, recent,” Harry said as Hailey growled even more. He pulled out the trusty chair leg from his bag and moved forward cautiously, Zayn and Niall following suit.

“Can – can we go back? I don’t like this,” Zayn whispered, thinking about the biker gang.

“Yeah, yeah, that sounds like the best idea,” Harry said, turning around.

And suddenly someone came limping out of a store, shouting something. Harry screamed and tripped over a body on the floor, causing Zayn to jump backwards and fall over Hailey, who was barking wildly. Niall turned on the spot, completely losing his head and not knowing what to do. Harry got up, raising the chair leg like a baseball bat, ready to strike the Zombie. He got a closer look and saw that this was not a Zombie, but a boy who closely resembled one. He was clutching the wall, smearing blood on it, and he tripped, falling face down.

“ _No!_ Please, _please,_ I didn’t mean to scare you – I’m so sorry!” the boy stuttered, his voice muffled from the ground.  

Harry and Zayn hoisted him up and sat him up against the wall. Niall got a good look at him and came to the conclusion that this boy might as well be a Zombie already. Dark circles formed around his eyes and his skin was as white as paper; his facial features stuck out at odd angles and his hair was stringy and shaggy. A chunk of his forearm was missing and they discovered that this is what was emitting the odor. Hailey stopped barking but remained alert and kept her sharp gaze trained on the boy, ears pointing straight up in alertness.

“A-are you alright?” asked Harry, catching his breath.

“I would hope so, but I’m not. I thought it was obvious?” spat the boy.

“Watch it,” muttered Zayn.

“I just think it’d be obvious due to my exposed bone coming out of my arm right now, you know?” the boy said sarcastically.

“What’s your name?” Niall asked before Zayn could retort.

“Ashton. How about you?” the boy named Ashton replied. “I didn’t mean to be rude, it just came out, I’m so, so, so sorry.”

“I’m Harry,” Harry said, “This is Zayn and Niall. And Hailey.”

“Cute dog! Nice to meet you guys,” Ashton said in a shaky voice. “Luke’s usually with me, but, he’s in the store. Dead. I got to him before he could turn.”

 

“You two got attacked?” Zayn asked.

 

“That obvious, huh? Yeah, we got here the day before yesterday. We’ve been wondering around in the forest for months now and you can imagine our excitement to have finally found shelter and food,” Ashton told them. “So we come up here, after a bit of exploring, and like, it’s getting dark now, so we’re looking for somewhere to crash. Our flashlight was about to go out a-and there was no way of knowing, right?”

Zayn clapped a hand to his mouth and Niall’s head dropped. Harry kneeled down and placed his hand on Ashton’s shoulder.

“T-those things, they came at us really fast, out of nowhere. We’d encountered them before, the forest is infested with them, but we panicked and before I knew it, we were getting mobbed. I did everything I-I could and got all of them b-b-but it was too late by then,” he choked out. “A big one got me, as you can see by my arm.”

He continued. “I was too late . . . and Luke got bitten and I couldn’t save him . . . I was too late. And you know what happens when you get bitten, right? You _turn_ into them. We watched it happen to a group of people that were looking at some bus,” Zayn made an involuntary gasp as he registered what Ashton was talking about.

“Luke and I discussed it too; he said that if any of us were to turn that w-we had to put the other out of their misery. ‘ _Being undead sounds like a hellauva job_ ’ he said. And that’s what I did.” Ashton finished with a lip quiver and a tear escaped his eye.

Harry gulped and squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay. I have some medication back at our camp and –“

“No, I think you misunderstood. Like, if you get bitten there’s no way out of it, you just . . . become one of them. That’s where I’m headed. I haven’t slept since then, just in case I die in my sleep and wake up like them, but I can feel myself turning,” Ashton interrupted. “And I don’t want to. But I’m too s-scared to do it myself.”

“What do you want us to do?” Harry asked him.

Ashton simply looked up at the three of them sadly and what he was asking them to do hit them like a truck.  

“You want one of us to. . . No. Absolutely not.” Niall said flatly.

“I really don’t – _please_ ,” begged Ashton.

Harry stood up and looked at Zayn. “Niall, could you -?”

“Yeah, yeah, go,” Niall said, nodding and sitting on the floor next to the boy.

“Come,” Harry gestured and he and Zayn walked a couple of feet away, well beyond earshot.

“Should we?” Harry inquired.

“I don’t know. Like, he’s already been bitten and definitely turning into a Zombie, but like, he’s still alive and that counts for something, doesn’t it?” Zayn replied, watching Niall chat animatedly to Ashton. “And I don’t think I have the guts to do it.”

“I know! That’s what makes this so difficult. I feel like if I was in his position I’d want someone to do the favor . . . but like you said, he’s still alive,” Harry said.

There was a bark of laughter from behind them and they saw the two boys roaring with laughter. There were a lot of things that Zayn liked about Niall and the mere fact that he was a ray of sunshine that shined through the dark and stormy clouds of people’s lives was one of them.

“I’ll do it.” Harry said after a while in a quiet voice.

Zayn turned to look at him, eyes wide with concern. “Are you sure?”

“Yes – No – yeah. If it was me, I’d want this to happen. Anything is better than being one of them. Just take Niall and go – I’ll catch up,” Harry responded.

“Okay,” breathed Zayn and they walked back over to Niall and Ashton. Hailey was still fixated on him but was less tense than before and Harry thought about how the dog must know about what was about to happen.

Niall looked up at them and he registered what was going to happen and he got up, linking his hand into Zayn’s. He patted Harry’s shoulder as he passed him and gave him a bright smile.

“Hailey! Hailey, come on girl!” Zayn called, but the dog merely looked at him lazily and remained where she was. “Come!” Zayn called again and she still didn’t move. Harry shrugged and Zayn and Niall walked away, turning a corner and out of sight.  

Harry got down on one knee and Ashton reached out to hug him with his good arm.

“Thank you, thank you,” he choked out. “Y-you can’t do it just anywhere, it has to be somewhere on the head. Because if you like stab my stomach I’ll still come back. It’s all in the head.”

“So . . . so a slit throat wouldn’t work?” Harry asked him. Anything to avoid bashing this poor kids head in.

“It would, actually! I saw it happen to someone a couple of towns over and they didn’t turn,” Ashton replied. Harry grabbed one of the knives on the floor and looked at it and back at the boy.

“Do it. Just remember that you’re still a good person, Harry, and I only just met you a few minutes ago,” Ashton said. “This is a good thing you’re doing.”

 

Was it really? It didn’t feel like he was, Harry thought.  This was living person that he was about to . . . off. This kid had a family somewhere, friends, a lover maybe, and yet he was here, sitting up against the wall of this mall, about to be killed. Harry couldn’t help but feel that this demoralizing and wrong and yet at the same time it was a good thing.

Harry took a deep breath and then did it without thinking – he dragged the sharp tip of the knife across Ashton’s throat and blood cameo out like a waterfall, drenching his hands. Ashton shuddered as he tried to breathe and his hands found Harry’s and Harry held them tight as the light began to leave his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Harry repeated himself.

“ _T-thank you,_ ” Ashton said with his last breath, and he was gone.

Harry fell backward, appalled about what he had done, and Hailey came over and snuggled into his body. And that was when he understood that the dog had stayed there for support and he hugged her as he sobbed into her fur.

\--

“How did it go?” Niall asked as soon as Harry descended the stairs.

“Gone,” Harry sniffed. “Can we go? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Yeah,” Zayn said and they exited the mall.

The sun had completely set now and it was a beautiful night. The moon was as bright as ever and the stars shined brightly to accompany it. It wasn’t as cold as any of them had expected it to be, but still, they had gotten some good supplies and then some. Harry refused to let himself believe that this trip had been nothing more than a test of character and morals and he joined in on Zayn and Niall’s conversation for a while but wasn’t feeling it.

Niall noted the melancholic feeling in the air surrounding Harry and did his best to try and cheer him up, reassuring him that he was still a good person and that sometimes you had to do things that you never thought you’d do. Harry felt like asking him why the hell he didn’t offer to do it then and remembered that Niall wasn’t rotten on the inside like he was. Because he knew that now, that he was rotten on the inside.  Niall was sweet and gentle and he, Harry, was nothing more than a common murder.

 _“But you aren’t”_ said a voice in his head. Harry ignored it.

Zayn knew that this situation would take a toll on his best-friend and did the most, like Niall, to make Harry see that this was . . . justifiable, in a way. He’d taken someone out of their misery and given them freedom.

They arrived back at the Rec Center in such a short amount of time that Zayn felt a little odd at how short it had taken them to get back. The way to the mall seemed longer, but that’s just how it was.

Hailey sniffed the grass and looked ready to use the bathroom and Zayn decided to stay outside with her until she was done. Harry and Niall walked ahead, entering the building.

Immediately, upon entering, they felt that something was off. The place felt more packed and they heard movement coming from the upstairs. Harry turned to look at Niall, who was facing the ceiling. Niall looked at him, fear clouding his face.

“Do we get Zayn?” Niall whispered.

“Go get him and I’ll see who’s up there. Go!” Harry urged him. He was ready for anything now.

Niall hesitated before running back out the door and Harry quietly made his way up the stairs. The door to the second floor was ajar and he peeked in. Someone was standing there at the foot of his cot with their back to him, but he recognized that backside from somewhere. He had stained and dirty clothing and his hair was longer now, definitely in need of a cut. Harry heard feet shuffle behind him and he looked to find Zayn and Niall coming up the stairs and then a voice from within the room spoke.

_“G-Gemma! Liam! Come here for a second?”_

And Harry felt the world drop from beneath him.  
He gasped loudly and Louis turned around.

“Lou,” he whispered.

“H-Harry?” Louis said and Harry just about dropped everything he was holding – blankets, some shoes, the chair leg – and burst into the room. Harry jumped into his arms and wrapped his legs around Louis’ torso like some kind of koala and they swayed on the spot. Harry smashed his mouth against Louis’s, which looked painful (and was) but he didn’t care. This was long overdue. Both of them were shaking uncontrollably and Harry was crying and kissing every inch of Louis’ face that he could reach. Again, all of his troubles left him and were replaced with ecstasy.

“You’re here! You’re really here!” Harry whimpered into his ear. Louis was sobbing into Harry’s shoulder and his heart was ready to burst.

“I thought you were dead, Haz, I looked for you in all of them,” Louis whispered.

“I’m here, I’m here and very much alive,” Harry answered.

“Little brother? Is that you?” said a female voice and Harry nearly broke all his limbs detangling himself from Louis.

“Gemma!” Harry ran to hug his sister and gave her the biggest hug he could muster. Behind him, there was a Liam, Zayn, Niall, and Louis reunion happening. Hailey was beside herself, barking happily and jumping around.

“I missed ya, Harry,” Gemma told him, wiping a tear away from her eye.

“Same to you, Gem!”

Harry turned to face Liam. “So you’re just going to ignore me?” He asked jokingly.

“Never!” Liam came over and rustled Harry’s hair before enveloping him in a hug. Gemma beamed.

“Harry, who gave you that haircut?” Gemma asked him.

“I did it myself. Why?” Harry scoffed.

“I – and you two told him it was – ohhh. He butchered both of you guys’ hair, good lord!” Gemma said, giggling.

“It looks perfect,” Louis protested. Harry gave him another wet, sloppy kiss.

“Ahhh, get out of here with your sap, Tomlinson!” Gemma snickered.

Zayn turned to the others. “So you followed the flannel?”

“Yes! It was a good idea and I’m glad we actually found them,” Liam said.

“Good, because it was my favorite flannel too. How’d you guys get out of there?” Zayn asked.

Gemma, Louis, and Liam told them the story of what happened after Zayn’s escape, pausing periodically to answer questions; when it came to the part where Louis shot the man attacking Liam, he stopped talking and stayed quiet for a while as Harry held him. Harry and Niall took turns catching up the others on their story of the past several months, up until the point when Zayn showed up. They mourned their parents and Sophia and, he had only known him for a short amount of time, Harry quietly mourned for Ashton and his friend. Maybe he wasn’t that bad of a person after all… just a good person thrust into a world where he had to do bad things.

After a while, everyone split up to do their own thing. Harry and Louis were talking over by the window; Niall and Zayn were sitting on their cot, also talking; Gemma was exploring the rest of the Rec Center with Hailey; and Liam was left to fiddle with the radio over by the wall. A funky pop song was playing and he was enjoying it immensely, but he felt like he was just there as he watched everyone do their thing. But that’s just how it was, he guessed, because none of them had seen each other in a while and they wanted to be by themselves.

The wind picked up and blew through the windows, extinguishing the lit candles. No one did anything about it though, because the bright light from the moon was calming and peaceful. Gemma returned, plopping down next to Liam.

“Hey, how’s it going?” She asked playfully.

Liam looked at her. “Good, good. And yourself?”

“Not bad. Well, not now, anyway,” she replied, pushing his shoulder. “Turn it up! I like this song.”

Gemma sang softly. _“_ _To the ends of the earth, would you follow me_ __  
There's a world that was meant for our eyes to see  
To the ends of the earth, would you follow me  
If you won't, I must say my goodbyes to thee _”_

“Are you telling me to follow you to the end of the Earth?” Liam asked jokingly.

“You are such a fucking dork,” Gemma whispered and before Liam could respond, she tilted her head and kissed him again. More fully and passionately than before at the river and more passionately, Liam reciprocated the gesture. He held her head in his hands and she groped the small of his back and both of them felt comfortable. She liked how he smelled of nothing in particular but a nice outside nature smell; he caught a waft of her hair and thoroughly enjoyed how it smelled like strawberries. Their noses brushed up against each other’s and they giggled. Faintly out of breath, they pulled away, Liam pink the face.

Gemma looked around to see if anyone had noticed (a small part of her hoping that they did) but found Harry, Louis, Niall, Hailey, and Zayn standing over by the window (or, in Hailey’s case, sitting), hand in hand, staring out of it. Gemma couldn’t think of a cheesier thing to do, but joined them anyway, left hand entwined with Liam’s, right hand joining Harry’s free hand, and together, they stood and watched the wind rustle the leaves and the clouds glide across the star filled sky, illuminated by the full moon that was out.

And maybe, Harry thought as they stood there, everything would in fact be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not too satisfied with that last sentence or the gemma/liam thing, but i guess that's what happens due to poor planning. 
> 
> a few things:
> 
> 1) originally this was going to end at 4 chapters, with Niall being killed off by Big Dan and Harry losing his mind and entering a catatonic state. I never thought about having the others join in, but one thing led to the other and here we are, 10 chapters later. 
> 
> 2) i'd like to thank everyone who took the time out of their days to read every update and who stayed through it all! the idea for this fic came to me one night and slapped me in the face and i had to do it. a huge, huge, super huge thank you to reader ShannonCrystal for being there since day 1 and giving me lengthy reviews that kept me going when i felt like the whole thing was going to crap. 
> 
> and 3) would anyone be interested in reading other things by me? like i have a few other fics thought of and i feel like they'd be pretty good (i'll plan everything before hand, lol!)
> 
> thanks for reading!! :-)


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